Something is wrong here! Okay, yes yes yes, we all know that Putin is a cartoonish strong man! But (as par for the course) the American people arent getting the full story from the mainstream media of whats going on in this crisis situation in Crimea/Ukraine. And the Daily Show is going along with this misinformation. Briefly, what people arent being told is that theres an east-west divide in the Ukraine, with the west being anti-Russian. After the overthrow of the *democratically elected* government and the ouster of its president, Viktor Yanukovych (who subsequently died of a heart attack), the western coalition government, which was made up of far-Right nationalist factions (e.g., neo-Nazis), passed a series of anti-Russian laws. The first of which was a banning of the Russian language. (This fact of the Russian language ban was even let slip in an NPR news segment last Monday.) When I say something is wrong, I mean with Prof. Kimberly Martens so-called exploration of Putins reasons for invading Crimea. Prof. Marten, who you would think would present a fair presentation of both sides of the story, gave not a word about any of this! Thus, this supported the mainstream demonization of Putin, who regardless of what is thought of him here, at least has some justification for wanting to protect Russians in the Ukraine (while nonetheless condemning his way of going about it). The question is why would such an expert in International Relations and Politics and Security in Eurasia not know these facts? Because, surely, if she knew them she would share them with American audiences! (Or would she?) Prof. Marten is a major player in the academic and foreign relations world: Professor of Political Science at Barnard College at Columbia University (where she earlier served as department chair), columnist for Foreign Affairs Magazine, and life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and etc., etc., etc, etc... So whats going on here? Are we being lied to by another distinguished academic on the CIA payroll? (When things get bad there, they get good here for people who study it!) Heres another distinguished professor on CNN from March 3rd. (See video clip below.) New York University professor Stephen F. Cohen, in an interview on CNN, contended that a large part of the story about whats going on in the Ukraine is being left out of the media. He identified far-Right extremists in the western Ukraine, who he says are a resolute and determined nationalist movement in the Ukraine. He explained: Its quasi-fascist and its dictating terms to this parliament in Kiev, which is not legitimate in law, neither international or constitutional. This parliament, which is a rouge parliament because they banned the two majority parties that represented the east, has been passing anti-Russian legislation. They banned the use of the Russian language. It isnt Russia thats been spewing this ideological, destabilizing message; its been coming from the west. And the worst part is that this hatred has been supported by Washington and Brussels in embracing this western Ukrainian movement. That must stop! thedailyshow/watch/thu-march-6-2014/kimberly-marten
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 22:30:24 +0000
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