I don’t know if there is any other armed conflict (military operation, invasion, whatever) with more fake news than this one. The parties, mixing everything with everything else, compete to spread their versions without the slightest concern for checking the veracity of the facts. The art of fabrication and dissemination of lies reaches such proportions that ordinary people should already decide who to believe blindly or stop watching the news. It is the most efficient and contemporary way to devalue the lives of all victims. The only real thing is the dead, many dead who serve or not one or another propaganda campaign.
From a clear position of rejection and condemnation of this war, we also need to point out that the one-sided, extremely superficial and ill-intentioned Western media campaign against Russia hides other interests and complicities and adds fuel to the fire. No other war was so censored as this one on social media, condemning and banning any opinion or doubt that is uncomfortable for its owners, characterising it as “pro-Russian propaganda”. To understand the tragedy, we need a lot of context, and more information. Without prejudice and listening to all honest parties, beyond one’s own political sympathies. I do not doubt that there are those in all trenches. We also know that they are few.
In these days and nights, we talk with many friends in Russia and Ukraine, trying to build together a more complete picture of the tragic events. Explaining the inexplicable.
With this somewhat disorganised publication, we want to start a series of publications that are summaries of our exchanges. Perhaps they could be a contribution to stopping the war in our country or at least a lesson for others.
These are two conversations with two friends in Russia, who for now prefer to remain anonymous for personal reasons. They are accompanied with a little inexperienced and under-resourced research, via Google, guided by the sole intention of understanding something more about the origins of this nightmare.
Here goes:
Accusations that the Pentagon is trying to create ethnically targeted biological weapons, to spread disease among certain population groups with the help of insects and migratory birds, sound like total, incoherent nonsense. There are practically no genetic differences between Russians and Ukrainians, and if used, these weapons would hit Ukraine itself.
However, theoretical research in this area is not an invention. According to material from the well-known English newspaper The Guardian, the British Medical Association (BMA) warned as early as 2004 about a possible risk of biological attacks against certain ethnic groups.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/oct/28/thisweekssciencequestions.weaponstechnology
In 1997, former US Defence Secretary William Cohen also warned of the danger of such weapons. The issue of ethnic weapons was discussed at the International Conference of the Red Cross in 2005, which concluded that the creation of such weapons is a real danger. In 2008 the issue was being discussed in the US Congress. In December 2020 the risks of ethnic biological weapons, in relation to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, were analysed by the prestigious American journal “Bulletin of Nuclear Scientists”.
On 25 February this year, the same magazine carried the words of Robert Pope, the director of the “biohazard risk reduction” programme that runs a network of US biological laboratories in Ukraine set up by the US Ministry of Defence. Pope expressed concern that the Russian invasion could lead to an outbreak of dangerous diseases from pathogens stored in these labs, including “possible samples of Soviet biological weapons”. The programme director added that the materials in the biological laboratories are dangerous not only to people but also to the Ukrainian ecology, pointing to one particular pathogen: African swine fever.
On 8 March, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland confirmed that there are US biological laboratories in Ukraine, and if their materials fall into Russian hands, they could pose a danger. Eyewitness commentators add that Nuland said this in a voice trembling with nervousness. Practically a confirmation by the US of the research that biological weapons can generate, the US television channel Fox News discussed in detail.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-we-have-right-know-this
The use of birds and parasites as distributors of biological weapons was discussed by authors of several publications in the well-known American scientific journals. They analysed not only the danger to human lives, but also a planned destruction of the ecological balance and the economy through the possibility of contagion of plants and animals. In 1985 these risks were analysed by the Washington Post.
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/52/7/583/247983
And what about nuclear weapons? Just one example. In discussions in the networks there was a lot of talk about strange relations between Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups and the Israeli ultra-right. One of the founders of the Ukrainian paramilitary battalion “Azov” is called Natan Chazin, he is Jewish. A representative of the Orthodox Jewish community in the USA told us that Chazin lived in Israel for no more than two years, never served in the Israeli army, then went to the USA, regularly visiting his homeland, Ukraine.
An American Jewish journalist claims that this Ukrainian paramilitary lived for many years in Monsey, a Hasidic suburb of New York, where he had a quiet family life, regularly travelling to Ukraine on business, but afterwards the events of 2014 in Ukraine he definitely moved from the US to Kiev, for purely personal reasons. Despite this, some Ukrainian media claim that Natan Chazin is an Israeli businessman, a military expert and former Israeli special forces officer.
Chazin himself claimed in an interview that during the 2014 coup he personally killed a Ukrainian policeman, became one of the founders of the “Azov” regiment and the “Jewish Hundred” (a shock group of 100 people organised to overthrow the government of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych) and then supplied the Ukrainian army with American drones, which he personally did not like very much. As advisor to the Ukrainian chief of the General Staff, Chazin called them “old junk” in 2016. That statement comes as no surprise, since on 15 March this year, Ukrainian President Zelensky and the US Congress asked the White House… to hand over old Soviet armaments to Ukraine. It seems to be about the remaining weapons in the Baltic countries or former members of the Warsaw Pact.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/biden-congress-soviet-made-weapons-ukraine/index.html
The posts and conversations on Natan Chazin’s Facebook page are disconcerting. Most of the calls are in bad English. On February 12 he wrote: “Biden, send in the troops!” and “Bandera was right!”, on February 13 he posted: “We are building nuclear weapons” and, in English, called to use them for the attack.
Natan Chazin:
Keeping it cool
And the one who is the one who is going to be in the middle of the day
WE ARE BUILDING AN ATOMIC WEAPON
UKRAINE!
MAKE NUKE AGAIN!
Let “s go Brandon!
On 22 February Chazin continued to call for the destruction of Russia, including cyber-attacks and the annihilation of Russian Federation supporters around the world. On the same day, responding to his call for nuclear weapons, his Israeli counterpart, one Mendy Greenfeld, replied in Hebrew that “it is enough just to open the sarcophagus at Chernobyl and that’s it”.
Already afterwards, on 2 March, Chazin’s website published a list of members of the European Parliament “to shoot” who had declared their opposition to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. His colleague Maryna Levitska called to get telephone numbers and private home addresses of these MPs. On 3 March the author of the page called for banning all opposition parties in Ukraine and prosecuting their members in court. On 6 March a new slogan appeared on Chazin’s page, in Ukrainian and English: “Guys, let’s quickly paint the enemy machines in a different colour. Every day make a new sign”. It is difficult to interpret it in any other way than as a call for sabotage and falsification of Russian military action.
Interestingly, Chazin expressed his extreme annoyance at the unwillingness of the US to help Ukraine. The discussion was on the page of former US general Kelly Ann Fisher, who on 5 March, posted her new photo on her Facebook profile, where in a paramilitary uniform she poses next to Chazin in Ukraine. Fisher, in a classy way, expressed her pity for the events in Ukraine and politely disengaged from her Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary friends, whom she most likely taught and consulted.
One of our Russian contacts complains that Facebook immediately afterwards began to block – because of alleged Russian propaganda – any critical questioning of Western versions. So, a large part of the interesting political conversations shifted from social networks to private chats. He recounts:
– A few days ago, I was convinced that Putin went crazy under pressure, he couldn’t take the American provocations. I am still absolutely against the invasion, but many new details have become clear to me. Personally, I have no doubt that Ukrainian ultra-nationalist circles, very close to their government, really hoped to get if not the nuclear weapons, then at least the radioactive materials to produce “the dirty bomb”.
Biological weapons were certainly being prepared; of that I have no doubt. There are specific scientific publications of the leading universities in the USA where theoretically the distribution of pathogens in birds and pathogens specially prepared for certain groups of the population according to the peculiarities of their DNA were discussed. That is, targeted to certain human races and nationalities. This is no delirium, you can google yourselves and find these works.
I have the impression that Putin was brought down by a huge flow of all kinds of provocations. Otherwise, I cannot explain why the US-led “Azov” paramilitaries were openly and loudly calling for acts of “nuclear terrorism”, why the Pentagon was conducting such dangerous and bizarre biological experiments for everyone? My response: to intimidate, to set two countries against each other, to set this conflict on fire.
Chemical weapons are something else. Chlorine and phosgene are easily accessible to everyone. Mustard gas is quite easy to make. That is why chemical weapons of this artisanal level are not counted, they can be made by anyone, just like explosives or rifles on a lathe. Moreover, for a chemical attack it is enough to get a batch of chlorine from any company. And it will be very difficult to prove the bad intentions of the manufacturers of such a widespread product. Phosgene is widely used in the paint and varnish industry. Even sarin is available, even the Shinrikyo AUMs were able to get it, although the risk of death for careless manufacturers is almost 100%.
And the level of fake news! For example, on Google there are pictures of the maternity hospital in Mariupol. It is another, though very similar to the standard building complex. These photos are on the website of the Mariupol hospital. It is another courtyard, and the windows and entrances are placed a bit differently. I tried to explain this to some people in the West. Their response was very typical: “you live in Russia, they poisoned your brain and we will not listen to your lies”. The worst thing is that afterwards these lies widely spread all over the world, many people stop believing in the real deaths of so many civilians. And that only ignites hatred, suspicion and war-mongering on both sides. Why do they spread these lies? That’s exactly why.
Here is the site of the Mariupol hospital complex where the maternity hospital number 3 is located:
http://mariupol.medkontrol.pro/mtmo-zdorovya-rebenka-i-zhenshhiny/rodilnoe-otdelenie
It is another building. Here is the facade of the main entrance to this medical centre. In the link there are pictures of a room in need of repair. It looks very similar to the pictures of the “bombing”.
In the video of the “bombing” the building really looks like it, although the real hospital has an entrance, the windows on the first floor have a different location, there is no continuous building on the left, on the right there is a two-storey house with small entrances. And the most important thing: a tidy courtyard with fir trees and a car park. What appears in the video is an abandoned building. And even if it is next door, on the territory of the hospital complex, it is not the maternity hospital. I guess it is one of the abandoned buildings, which has not been functioning for a long time, that’s why it has not had a car park for a long time. For comparison, the famous video:
The filming continues in the meantime. Suddenly, a dead mother and her child appeared on Videoquecuenta. It was published on 14 March by NBC. New images blurred, confused, jumping…
Why do they all this time – consciously – provoke the Russians? It is very clear that it only increases the mood of national patriotism. For this very purpose.
Note one more detail: American officials always repeat the phrase “absolutely unprovoked invasion”. Because they understand perfectly well that it is the invasion justly “provoked”.
It is a phenomenon of some South Pacific tribes, who adore gigantic models of American planes and other American things, believing that imitating the Americans will bring them force and well-being. “Why can America bomb and we can’t?”. It is the purest cargo cult.
The patriotic Russian public all over the country formed roadblocks, queued up in front of McDonalds, to have lunch there one last time. The vast majority of them were the patriotic public. Others were happy that instead of cheesburgers they would have their beloved blinis (Russian pancakes) with caviar.
The most terrible thing is that the war machine is already set in motion and “No to war” in Russia is perceived only as a synonym for “Yes to the USA”, even if the slogan is absolutely good and correct.
I think this whole situation was organised with a lot of planning and a lot of cynicism. Although it seems that they were looking for a small conflict, so that they would fire a little bit, apply all the sanctions planned for Russia and disregard the problems in Ukraine. For the West, the Ukrainians are the same beasts as the Russians, but more docile to tame.
Almost everyone I know in Russia protests against the war, mostly because these protests are against Putin. It is not out of love or compassion for the suffering people. Many Ukrainians see this hypocrisy, which, however, does not justify the Nazi tendencies in Ukraine, which for more than 10 years have been quite clear.
Russian propaganda is rather crude, based on real facts but interpreting them in an extremely biased way and ending with the familiar jingoistic slogans.
Paradoxical though it may seem, Russia behaves like a neighbourhood bully, but more or less by the book. Russia is not used to the West’s complex tradition of cowardice and cynicism. Even the patriotic Russian public thinks that the US behaves only like bandits, and this is not so. In Russia there is a stereotype of the US as the “world gendarme”, but they don’t understand at all that the whole world is much more manipulated, cowardly, complex and perverse.
That is why I believe that this war is more than anything else the result of a complex and cowardly provocation. Multi-level provocation, by the imperialist elites, concentrated mostly in the USA. In order to confront Russia with Ukraine and to make the European Community more docile and dependent on the USA. The idea is very simple, but its realisation is extremely complicated. And here we have the result: on both lines of the conflict a lot of people infected with hysteria and rage, losing their human image.
