The story is that at the time of the Bill Clinton administration, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was running for re-election. The polls were showing that he was going to lose to the Communist Party candidate. Clinton sent his favorite political operative Dick Morris, along with a boatload of $$$, to bail Yeltsin out. The imperialist trick was successful.
We hear a lot of unproven claims that Russia helped Trump win his election over Hillary Clinton. But in fact Washington has had its dirty hands deep inside of Russian politics since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
We have developed a very distorted view of Russia and Vladimir Putin. It's been going on so long that few in the US could tell you where they learned what they 'think' they know about Russia.
It's just part of the air we breathe. It's the dark wallpaper in our lives. And many across the west believe all that they have been led to think. It is called indoctrination and propaganda - served up by a CIA infiltrated western corporate media.
One would imagine that if the Russian people were not happy with their government they would have long ago found a way to replace their current president. But at this moment his favorability ratings are approaching 80%. Joe Biden would be thrilled with numbers that good - his rating is currently at 40% and likely declining as each day he has to walk back another nonsensical statement.The US has long been out to force regime change in Russia. Now, thanks to another slip of the tongue by Biden, it is in the public mind. But as many around the world frequently state, 'We knew that already'.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and he writes:
"The U.S. got its war in Ukraine. Without it, Washington could not attempt to destroy Russia’s economy, orchestrate worldwide condemnation and lead an insurgency to bleed Russia, all part of an attempt to bring down its government. Joe Biden has now left no doubt that it’s true.
Once hidden in studies such as this 2019 RAND study, the desire to overthrow the government in Moscow is now out in the open.
One of the earliest threats came from Carl Gersham, the long-time director of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Gershman, wrote in 2013, before the Kiev coup: “Ukraine is the biggest prize.” If it could be pulled away from Russia and into the West, then “Putin may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.”
David Ignatius wrote in The Washington Post in 1999 that the NED could now practice regime change out in the open, rather than covertly as the C.I.A. had done.
The RAND Corporation on March 18 then published an article titled, “If Regime Change Should Come to Moscow,” the U.S. should be ready for it. Michael McFaul, the hawkish former U.S. ambassador to Russia, has been calling for regime change in Russia for some time.
If we are honest with ourselves we will recognize that the US-NATO have been in the regime change business ever since the end of WW II. For example, the secret Operation Gladio was used by Washington-Brussels to create terrorism to ensure that no Communists came to power in Italy when polls showed they were likely to win. The US-NATO in 1999 (again during Bill Clinton's time in office) broke Yugoslavia into pieces and Washington opened up a large military base called Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.
Then there was US-NATO take down of Iraq and Afghanistan that were followed by Libya - which today has open slave markets. No 'democracy' in any of those nations.
The 'North Atlantic Alliance' is still trying to destroy Syria, but Russia was asked by the Syrian government for help -
which is legal under international law.
The same treatment was slated for Russia but Putin and the Russian people understood the score and refused to cave in to western pressures. Now out of desperation the US-NATO has pushed this war in Ukraine (actually under way since before 2014) onto the world stage and made a hero out of the T-shirt wearing Zelensky - who is nothing more than an actor reading a script handed to him by his public-relations handlers.
Zelensky is presently calling on the world to ban the letter 'Z' that Russia paints on its military equipment. I guess we'll have to call him 'elensky' from now on....
One key element that runs through all of the US-NATO regime change operations since the early 1990's is the unrelenting demonization of a leader. This tactic has two purposes - reduce the support for a particular nation's leader inside their own country and brainwash the public globally so that when the US-NATO make their move to overthrow the 'new Hitler' people have become anesthetized to the operation and fall into line.
This is what is happening today with Russia. Ukraine is just a tool - a US 'exceptionalist' sword that the west uses to drive into the heart of Russia. It's illegal, immoral and dare I say - purely evil.
Sadly few (even many so-called 'progressives') pay enough attention to events around the world to really know what has been actually happening in Ukraine during the past eight years. Some who are out on the streets waving the blue and yellow flag because they feel the pain of war, also feel the need to join the accepted crowd. Most people don't have the gumption to go against the prevailing corporate media hype and regime change agenda.
The big difference between Russia and most of the rest of the other nations that were regime-changed in recent years is that Moscow has the ability to stand their ground and fight back. And they will - the Russians know that the western resource extraction corporations want to bust their country into smaller bits so their vast natural resource base can be stolen. One could say, it is an old story for the proud Russian people.
In the past 500 years, Russia has been invaded several times from the west. The Poles came across the European Plain in 1605, followed by the Swedes under Charles XII in 1707, the French under Napoleon in 1812, and the Germans—twice, in both world wars, in 1914 and 1941. Every 100 years the west makes its move and fails.
Now here we are in 2022 and the Modus Operandi of the west is on full ugly display. Most people don't appear to recognize that we are living in the midst of aggressive fascist states throughout the west.
When will the brainwashed masses in the west say STOP the US-NATO bullshit?
Hopefully before it is too late....
Bruce Gagnon
March 31, 2022
The author of this post is Bruce Gagnon. Bruce is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire. Read more from Bruce Gagnon in Space4Peace.