Govern the state by being straightforward; Wage war by being crafty — Tao Te Jing, 57 以正治国，以奇用兵。
Москва, Россия
Joined June 2009
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Marcus retweeted
As Russophobia spirals, an important corrective here from Professor Michael Northcott – "Propaganda and Britain’s Long War on Russia" – published in @PropagandaFocus
propagandainfocus.com/propag…
Marcus retweeted
I know several former Soviet dissidents, such as Edward Lozansky, who moved to the United States, where he worked with former American presidents. Lozansky asked me if I could produce some recorded online lectures on geoeconomics. I asked my university here in Norway, but they were opposed to the idea because it could cause a lot of problems. I told Lozansky that I could not contribute, as recording online lectures for an American-Russian university established to improve relations between Russia and the West would give Norwegian journalists too much ammunition for smears and to threaten the reputation of my university.
What is the purpose of articles like this? What exactly have they managed to catch me out on? This is a continuation of six years of intimidation since I returned to Norway. Always go after the person, never the argument. Make life as difficult as possible for your opponent, and do it publicly, so that everyone stays in line.
My great crime is arguing that Russia considers NATO expansion an existential threat, something that should be entirely uncontroversial given the extensive documentation supporting this position. Why do I believe it is important to acknowledge this? Russia will use force to push NATO back, and for Ukraine, this means that without a diplomatic solution that takes Russian security concerns into account, Russia will seize strategically important territory and destroy the remaining infrastructure so that Ukraine cannot be used by NATO as a front line. If I am right, NATO's policies will lead to the destruction of Ukraine and potentially to a nuclear war between NATO and Russia.
It is not easy to determine whether I am right, because debate in Norway has been criminalized by labelling dissenting voices as “Russian propaganda.” Unfortunately, arguments and evidence no longer matter in Norway today, where we are only allowed to discuss the supposed evil intentions of those who disagree with us. The freedom of academic discourse must be restricted because all dissent is dismissed as an attempt to “legitimize” the enemy.
In the past, we had journalists who discussed the security concerns of the opposing side. Today, we have journalists who investigate those who discuss the security concerns of the opposing side. How can we improve our own security in Norway when we are not even allowed to discuss the security concerns of Russia, China, Iran, and other countries of that kind? When acceptable debate is reduced to a narrative of a struggle between good and evil, weapons become the path to peace, while diplomacy and mutual understanding are portrayed as weakness and betrayal.
The punishment for academic dissent in Norway is endless personal attacks and derogatory name-calling. Journalists and NGOs affiliated with the state repeatedly contact my employer. Every time I am invited to give a talk, the event is cancelled. Journalists only email me to demand that I respond to accusations without providing any serious justification for them. Journalists investigating me in search of something they can use against me recently gained access to my university records. The only thing they had to use against me was that I had asked about producing some online lectures for Lozansky on political economy. Other recent articles about me have focused on my request to reduce my position at the university to 80% after journalists complained about my outside activities, as well as fake news claiming that I congratulated Putin on the election victory.
I do not believe it is a coincidence that "An Enemy of the People" was written by one of our own, Henrik Ibsen. Outside Norway, there are academic debates in which opposing arguments are presented without vicious personal attacks. Outside Norway, there is political opposition in which every member of parliament is not required to support arms shipments to a war and boycott diplomacy. Outside Norway, there are diplomats who believe in diplomacy and journalists who believe in journalism.
My advice to young Norwegian academics in security studies or political economy who argue for positions that are not supported by the political and media bubble is this: Get out of the country.
Marcus retweeted
Washington’s biggest geopolitical fear was Russia teaming up with Germany.
That's what George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, the American private intelligence and geopolitical analysis firm, explained back in 2015. German capital and technology, combined with Russian resources and manpower, could create a power capable of challenging the United States.
Friedman also said that keeping Germany and Russia apart had been a central concern of US foreign policy for an entire century - from WWI through WWII and the Cold War.
Now look where we are. The war in Ukraine has torn apart decades of German-Russian economic cooperation. Germany has turned away from Russian gas, and in September 2022, explosions ripped through the Nord Stream pipelines that had physically connected the two economies.
Marcus retweeted
Dear Andy Burnham, the Oxford Internet Institute examined social media after the Brexit vote.
Their conclusion was that Russian traffic made up around a one thousandth of just one percent of Brexit traffic.
Thus, I suspect you're lying; so put up your evidence or shut up.
Marcus retweeted
The "evidence" that Burnham is referring to is from the same sources that lied to us about Iraq having WMDs and Russia blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines. They're going for a hat trick.
Andy Burnham says UK authorities are “clear” there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum as @CatNeilan reports in today’s @ObserverUK
observer.co.uk/news/national…
Marcus retweeted
Andy Burnham becomes first PM to confirm Russian interference in Brexit referendum
@campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK's exclusive interview with @andyburnham on tomorrow's episode of Leading is out in full at midnight.
Marcus retweeted
Had it not been for Boris Johnson and Victoria Nuland -- who personally forced Zelensky to reject the deal Ukraine and Russia were about to sign in Istanbul in 2022 -- this horrific war that has killed more than a million and consumed much of Ukraine would have been long over.
It is sickening that the USA is now lifting sanctions on Russian fuel, and transparently ridiculous to blame Ukraine for the spike in prices that obviously began with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Putin is murdering innocent Ukrainian civilians every day. The Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. And yet the White House is apparently determined to force American drivers to bankroll Putin’s slaughter. It won’t work and I doubt it will make much difference to the price of fuel.
If we want Russian oil and gas back on the world market then let’s end this war - with a free, sovereign and independent Ukraine.
Marcus retweeted
‼️ Things As They Really Are, As They Really Have Been, and As They Really Will Be
Fiorella Isabel's judgment of the matters she addresses in the quoted post has remained consistently impaired ever since she became disillusioned with the Russians for not fighting the kind of war she believes they should.
For her, Putin et al. are incorrigible traitors to the causes she imagines they should have and the courses of action she believes they should take.
Pretty much everything she writes in the post below is nonsense born of shallow understanding and myopic perspectives.
Isabel simply cannot wrap her mind around the complexities and perplexities of the current revolution we are seeing in terms of the global military and economic balance of power, and the so-called "soft power" of international diplomatic relations.
Perhaps most of all, Fiorella (among a great many) has never been able to comprehend the concepts contained in something I have been writing about for years, and which I have recently encapsulated in a single statement:
When you are locked in a mortal struggle with an empire in existential crisis, you must administer death by a thousand cuts in order to not evoke a trapped animal reflex in a beast who, at the very least, could destroy a city in a fit of fury.
These things must be done delicately.
This concept has been at the root of all Russian actions since they realized, in the summer of 2022, that they would henceforth be fighting a war against not only the Ukrainians, but also the combined military and logistical power of the United States and its various allies around the world.
It remains my judgment that, all things considered in their proper light and scope, Russia has managed its affairs with remarkable acumen.
Since February of 2022, the Russians have systematically attrited — to a shockingly comprehensive degree — the military capability of the collective western powers.
Even more shocking, they have exposed the inefficacy and vulnerability of most of the western legacy implements of war, and the woefully deficient magazine depth of its armaments.
They have similarly administered a comprehensive demilitarization of Ukraine, which now stands on the precipice of total collapse.
The Russians have inflicted upwards of two million Ukrainian casualties. And, notwithstanding the laughable analyses of the credentialed western "experts", it will eventually be recognized and universally acknowledged that the Ukraine War has produced the most disproportionate casualty ratio of any major war in modern times.
The Russian prosecution of this war will be admiringly studied for generations to come in war colleges and military histories.
Most meaningfully, in course of time, we will see all of Russia's originally enunciated objectives realized:
- Russia will extend its strategic depth to encompass the Black Sea coast to the Danube, Transnistria, and at least all the lands east of the Dnepr — and quite possibly large swathes of the territory west of the Dnepr as well.
- Ukraine, if it survives this war at all, will be comprehensively de-Nazified and de-militarized.
- Assuming NATO continues to exist as a credible military / political alliance, its military presence will be forced back to its 1997 borders.
I also believe Russia, China, and Iran will continue to solidify their "partnership". They will anchor the "Eurasian Century".
The American empire will rapidly recede from Eurasia in coming years. The United States will enter a period of unprecedented political conflict and significant economic tribulation, and quite possibly increasingly strident voices for regional secessions, and organized movements tending towards the eventual balkanization of North America.
I submit that the degree to which Fiorella holds to a radically different view of these questions is the measure of her error, and this will become increasingly apparent between now and the end of this decade.
Yes and Russia just sold diesel to the U.S. at a high price than it would at home or to others.
The U.S. will sell it at one as well. This is undermining Iran and Yemen. Europe is thrown under the bus, as is Zelensky.
Russia does not have a mutual defense pact with Iran. Russia is a capitalist country operating to expand its economic potential not an idealist or altruistic nation. Parts of the Kremlin absolutely want an economic deal with Washington.
Marcus retweeted
For decades, the United States pushed Europe — and in particular Germany — to break energy ties with Russia. They did, becoming highly dependent on imports of fossil fuels from Washington, paying multiples of the price they were offered by Moscow. Germany is deindustrializing as a result. Now, as US policies drive the world towards an energy cliff, Washington is set to buy inexpensive fuel from Russia to address its own crisis — while waging a proxy war on Russia! To call this a humiliation for Germany is an understatement.
Marcus retweeted
RAF pilot recounts destroying Dresden
“It was evil.”
“We were supposed to be the good guys.”
“We ended up being worse than the third Reich.”
Marcus retweeted
As a pilot for 20 years I have questions:
- where are the cabin crew here?
- where are the oxygen masks that automatically drop during a rapid emergency descent?
- how did the Capt manage to open the door while being stabbed?
- Omani pilots were not allowed to fly to Israel, why was he allowed?
- how did the offending pilot get a weapon onboard?
- why has this happened so close to elections?
- how are passengers walking around while apparently in a nosedive?
- who else was injured? Nose dives cause significant g force incidents
- why is there two perfectly positioned people recording the incident and not helping?
- why did a plumber take control and not the 2 pilots onboard who would certainly know when an aircraft was in a nosedive?
- why was the plumber speaking in English to Bibi after the flight
- why was he still in his blood soaked clothes 8 hours after the incident
False Flags have been a very effective mechanism to influence public opinion
Hitler burnt down the Reichstag just before his parliament elections and he won the election…changing the course of history.
A full and independent investigation should be carried out here.
Hopefully independent journalist will be allowed to view this too.
#WATCH: Israeli passengers rush the cockpit to rescue their Flydubai flight after the copilot attempted to hijack it.
Marcus retweeted
“Burkina is becoming the new North Korea,” complains French state media after its former colony decides to pursue policies of sovereign development. This should also tell you everything you need to know about why the DPRK is vilified and slandered.
Marcus retweeted
On this day 26 years ago, the world watched, as Jamal al-Durrah tried to protect his 12-year-old son Muhammad from Israeli bullets that rained down on them in Gaza for 40 minutes. Despite pleads, Israeli soldiers intentionally shot Muhammad in the stomach- whose final moments of fear and horror were caught on camera and streamed by France TV, and injured his father.
Muhammad became the defining and haunting image of the Second Intifada.
Marcus retweeted
When “almost sure,” pin it on Russia... The people who lied about Russiagate, the Biden laptop, Russia putting bounties on American soldiers in Iraq, the Istanbul agreement, and Nord Stream etc continue to prioritise escalating tensions rather than seeking peace.
Marcus retweeted
🚨EMMNAUEL TODD KILLED ALL WARMONGERS IN EUROPE
🚨Emmanuel Todd: "We must stop LYING about PUTIN and the WAR."
🚨 I say that the number of anti-Russian provocations is such that peace continues in Europe because the Russians are calm and have a particular kind of self-control.
🚨I'm saying is that if Germany, I mean, really gets involved in this war and Merz ... well, you really have to listen to the Germans right now.
🚨Merz talks about the Russians as if they are barbarians.
Well, it was still the Wehrmacht that killed 25 to 27 000 000 million Soviets.
🚨 Regarding Germany, for me, there is a possibility that the Russians might lose their composure.
🚨The risk, the nuclear risk always exists.
🚨Russian superiority in the field of hypersonic missiles is such that they probably wouldn't even need nuclear weapons to stop Europe if it did something foolish.
🚨The war is over in 10 days.
🚨 We need to listen to the Russians.
🚨European elites dream of a war with Russia to escape their responsibilities.
🚨 It's so obvious that the Russians really have no desire to make war on Europe.
🚨 What I'm trying to make understood, is that the statements from English, German, and French leaders about a Russian desire to threaten Western Europe are delusional statements that must have a cause.
And for me, this cause has nothing to do with Russian attitudes.
It's connected to what is the real subject of my book, namely the internal disintegration of Western societies, especially European ones, the state of crisis, the state of emptiness which is not the same in France or in Germany.
🚨 - You say that it is already won by the Russians.
We're in the last year now, we're in the last year.
🚨When, that end arrives, our leaders will have to be held accountable to us and to the Ukrainians whom they encouraged to fight to the death and the complete destruction of their state.
And what I'm afraid of, is that, vaguely, our leaders, the German leaders, the British leaders are telling themselves that as long as the war continues, they are safe.
🚨You see, the risk for our leaders.
📑As for me, that's why they accuse me, of being pro-Putin, because I try to think ...
You say that's not true, you say this accusation is ...
Well, anyway, it's me, I'm French and nothing else, you know.
So, but I think I understand fairly well, or have understood fairly well the way the Russians work, which is rational, defensive, and cold.
I don't know if we realize when we see the operations carried out by the United States, the attacks on Iran,
the irrational behavior of the government.
We, have this paradox of dictatorships or authoritarian regimes that are more predictable and rational than, than we are.
We don't realize what a good part of what remains of peace in Europe.
I'm going to say exactly the opposite of what everyone else is saying.
Everyone says: Russia wants to attack Europe.
Everyone says that Russia is the threat.
Me, what I say ...
Today, we hear it, the President of the Republic says it.
I say exactly the opposite.
I say that the number of anti-Russian provocations is such that peace continues in Europe because the Russians are calm and have a particular kind of self-control.
Yes, but what I mean is, you say that Putin is calm.
But what I'm saying is that I mean, in the book, what I'm saying is that if Germany, I mean, really gets involved in this war and Merz ... well, you really have to listen to the Germans right now.
Merz talks about the Russians as if they are barbarians.
Well, it was still the Wehrmacht that killed 25 to 27 000 000 million Soviets.
And I'm saying that, regarding Germany, for me, there is a possibility that the Russians might lose their composure.
That's the real risk.
No, but here, I'm going back to the question.
The situation, the situation is totally the opposite of what is being said.
There is a nuclear risk in that case, you're saying otherwise ....
The risk, the nuclear risk always exists.
At this stage, I think I'm going to say something reassuring.
Russian superiority in the field of hypersonic missiles is such that they probably wouldn't even need nuclear weapons to stop Europe if it did something foolish.
But we need to listen to the Russians.
Lavrov said it.
But people don't listen, people don't listen to…
Lavrov said, "But be careful, we do not want war."
But if you send troops into Ukraine to the Europeans, well, that will be considered an act of war.
And I'm telling you that this war will be of a very different nature than what is happening in Ukraine.
It will be a very short war. Yes.
And I can interpret.
That's because, in Ukraine, for the Russians, it's about reclaiming territory.
You say they won't go any further than a certain limit in Ukraine.
They will not attack Europe, unlike the threat—
It's not in their interest.
I'm saying it very clearly.
Anyway, I think they want to go as far as Odessa to secure the Black Sea, that they're going to go as far as the Dnieper.
I think they probably want to turn Ukraine into a rump state.
But Russia absolutely does not have the means, I mean, in terms of demographics or strategic interest.
Russia is already 17 000 000 million square kilometers.
Why would they want to create more problems for themselves with the Poles, whom they've never gotten along with historically?
Yes, so why are we acting?
Why, in your opinion, are we acting?
It is a threat.
I would still like to finish on what a war between .... since I personally think that some European elites dream of a war with Russia to escape their responsibilities.
But it would be an explosion.
That's one of the things we have to be able to imagine in order to avoid it.
But if you listen to Macron, if you listen to Merz, If you listen, I can't even recall the name of the new British Prime Minister.
I mean, they ... they tell us.
It's like they're preparing us for war with Russia.
So for me....
Preparing so that we don't have to endure it.
That's what they'll tell you.
But everyone knows very well.
The Russians don't have neither the means nor the desire.
War on land, invasion, what the war in Ukraine has shown, is that war, where you actually occupy territory, was extremely difficult and costly because of drones.
To the extent that the only war that might happen between Europe and Russia for the Russians would be
a defensive war, just to prevent the Europeans from entering Ukraine.
Everyone, and that's why it would be short and not costly for them given their superiority.
It's simply, I guess, I do, I'm not saying it's true, but I try to put myself in that frame of mind where you say well,
let's imagine all the possibilities so we can prevent this from happening.
So what is a short war?
Well, the Russians are troubled by all the efforts of Europe's industries and media and launch hypersonic missiles at all the military industries of Western Europe.
And the war is over in 10 days.
That's that's that's what is being mentioned.
It's not, Lavrov didn't say that, but that's what I heard.
No one could wish for that.
But but no one.
No one in Europe could wish for that.
But no one.
So, that's where the real question is.
The real question.
The peoples of Europe, obviously, they don't want that.
But truly, it's so obvious that the Russians really have no desire to make war on Europe.
They just want to be left alone to devour Ukraine. Nothing more.
But isn't that intolerable?
Emmanuel Todd, isn't that intolerable?
That's what's happening right now.
I'm not going back over that.
That's what's happening right now.
From the Russian point of view, it's defensive, but I'm not even going to defend them.
What I'm trying to make understood, is that the statements from English, German, and French leaders about a Russian desire to threaten Western Europe are delusional statements that must have a cause.
And for me, this cause has nothing to do with Russian attitudes.
It's connected to what is the real subject of my book, namely the internal disintegration of Western societies, especially European ones, the state of crisis, the state of emptiness which is not the same in France or in Germany.
And among our leaders, no doubt, I think about it more and more these days, there is the feeling that, well if the war in Ukraine ends and if it ends ...
You say that it is already won by the Russians.
That's what you're saying, then.
We're ... we're in the last year now, we're in the last year.
You say that it is won by the Russians.
They're advancing, all right.
So, and therefore we will, I mean, the most horrible wars all come to an end.
And when, that end arrives, our leaders will have to be held accountable to us and to the Ukrainians whom they encouraged to fight to the death and the complete destruction of their state.
And what I'm afraid of, is that, vaguely, our leaders, the German leaders, the British leaders are telling themselves that as long as the war continues, they are safe.
You see, the risk for our leaders.
