“It’s Doomsday Right Now in Aleppo”

Late-breaking news from the Bizarro World:

Despite the fact the breakdown of the ceasefire achieved through the mediation of Russia and the United States was preceded by systematic ceasefire violations on the part of the opposition, to which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drew the attention of his western counterparts, the initiators of the emergency meeting of the Security Council tried to emphasize violations on the part of Damascus.

[…]

Given the abruptly increasing pressure from the West, the opposition, which the West calls “moderate,” has also delivered a new blow to Moscow’s peacekeeping efforts. A communiqué by the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which unites thirty groups, states that, “as a sponsor and partner of a regime committing crimes against our people,” Moscow’s further mediation is unacceptable.

In this situation, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, was forced to admit for the first time, during the Security Council meeting, that a return to peace in Syria had become an almost impossible task.

Source: Kommersant, September 25, 2016; translated by the Russian Reader

Meanwhile, back on our planet:

As the situation in Syria worsens, the White Helmets are risking their lives to save Syrians trapped and injured by airstrikes and fighting.

They’re a group of volunteers who act as first responders to bombardments.

Ammar Salmo is a spokesman for the White Helmets who says the situation on the ground is worsening by the day.

‘It’s doomsday right now in Aleppo,’ he says.

‘I want the people of the world to move, to make something for humanity.’

Source: “Breakfast,” ABC Radio National, September 26, 2016

It’s a Done Deal, or, The Miracle of the Bridge That Builds Itself

done deal

Putin Calls Issue of Crimea’s Ownership Done Deal
Kirill Bulanov
RBC
September 3, 2016

The question of Crimea’s ownership is closed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.

“The people of Crimea made a decision and voted. Historically, it’s a done deal,” he stressed, as quoted by Interfax.

“There is no way of returning to the previous system. None,” added Putin.

Crimea joined Russia on the basis of a referendum [sic] that took place March 16, 2014. More than 95% of those who took part in the plebiscite voted for joining the peninsula to Russia. Ukrainian and western authorities called the move an “annexation,” and the US and European Union introduced sanctions against a number of Russian citizens and Russian companies.

The head of the government made a similar statement at the beginning of the year.

“This issue is closed forever. Crimea is part of Russian territory,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in February.

On September 1, the US extended its sanctions list against Russia. The new sanctions affect companies involved in building the Kerch Strait Bridge. In particular, the list now includes construction subcontractor Mostotrest and SGM Most. The list also included seventeen individuals, among them Crimean officials and security officials.

Crimean Bridge, published on YouTube by user Krymskii Most on October 2, 2015. The annotation to the video reads, “They made a video about me. Wow!”

The same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the west’s political position of not recognizing Crimea’s accession to Russia [sic].

“No legal obstacles to recognition of Crimea’s accession, its reunification with the Russian Federation, exist,” he said, speaking to students at MGIMO.

_________

Meeting with students at MGIMO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the main reasons the West had not accepted Crimea’s accession to Russia.

According to the minister, Europe and the US do not recognize Crimea as belonging to Russia solely for their own benefit and out of a desire to use the situation to their own political ends. Moreover, Ukraine and Kiev’s position on this issue have not interested the West for a long time.

“The West pursued this policy, a policy of containing Russia, long before the events in Ukraine,” said Lavrov.

The diplomat stressed it has long been recognized worldwide the peninsula’s reunification with Russia took place in full accordance with all the canons [sic] of the international world [sic], and in accordance with the wishes of the residents of Crimea themselves. Publicly, however, no one wants to confirm this.

Source: PolitEkspert, September 1, 2016

Translated by the Russian Reader. Inspirational message courtesy of Pinterest.com

I Don’t Love Rov

Greg Yudin
August 12, 2015
Facebook

Regarding Lavrov’s “spontaneous outburst.”

If you walk along the Arbat in Moscow and go into the souvenir shops, you can find out what new things the Kremlin’s spin doctors have come up with to promote Russia abroad. For Russians, there are t-shirts bearing images of Putin. And for the tourists there are two t-shirts featuring Lavrov. On one, he says [to the then-British foreign] minister David Miliband, “Who are you to fucking lecture me?” The other shows him smoking a cigarette and bears the inscription, “I Love Rov.”

Basically, they want to turn Lavrov into a rebel and romantic hooligan, a new Chavez. The calculation is clear: much of the world is objectively weary of Euro-American global hegemony (and Europeans and Americans are almost more tired of it than anyone else). So here comes Russia, as represented by Lavrov, and naughtily tells the adults that we don’t need your lectures and basically you should leave us alone. But back of this “Who are you to tell me?” lurks something very familiar, and it’s not Pink Floyd. It’s like when you approach a tipsy lout who has taken a swing at his wife, and he replies, “What the fuck you telling what to do?” Or when a woman asks a guy in the subway to give up his seat for her, and he says, “Who the heck are you?” Or when the big boss is listening to a report and sighs in such a way that everyone in the rooms hears him saying, “Fucking morons.”

This is not the behavior of a rebel, but of a common thug, who differs from the rebel in the sense that equality is a valuable thing in itself to the rebel. Not only does he not let anyone else tell him what to do, but he also doesn’t tell his neighbor how to live. And, by the way, he doesn’t take pieces of his land when the neighbor isn’t looking. But the thug could give a hoot about freedom and equality. He needs to muscle in on and put the squeeze on others. His rebellion ends right at the moment when he gets what he has coming.

Russia is persistently building an image as a global goon. It is doing this with a diplomat who believes that respecting one’s opponent is a weakness. Goons may be feared, but no one likes them. So these people are taking the risk of ruining my country’s image for a long time to come. This is already noticeable to those who have dealings with foreign partners.

Incidentally, I could not resist and asked a seller whether foreigners buy the Lavrov t-shirts. Not particularly, he said. Most of the buyers are Russians and they buy the Putin t-shirts.

“But that guy,” he said, “who the fuck wants him?”