Live video: Russia Today presenter denounces Ukraine intervention

Live video: Russia Today presenter denounces Ukraine intervention

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norman lebrecht

March 04, 2014

This is Abby Martin, who is unlikely to keep her US-based job on the Putin channel.

abby martin

Comments

  • SergioM says:

    She says at the end that she will keep “telling the truth as I see it”. Unfortunately that’s not going to be for much longer. Never watched the RT channel anyway. it was basically the “Russia is great and the U.S. is terrible” 24 hours news channel

  • A sincere and obviously heartfelt statement from a woman who is not interested in being merely a talking head. She will be able to sleep nights with a clear conscience as a rare and standout journalist.

  • MelarModelo says:

    You naive people! Of course she will keep her job. That’s exactly for this kind of “insubordinate postures” she was hired by RT in the first place!

  • Gonout Backson says:

    MelarModelo could be just right: she officially declared she has not been fired, that the American media lied, and she ‘s celebrating now the glorious independence of the station..,

  • SergioM says:

    Turns that we all have been fooled Abby Martin is not what we think she is. She’s actually a fraud and something of a nutcase. Check out this segment from Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word on MSNBC from last night

    http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/what-dissent-in-russia-looks-like-182620227938

  • ed says:

    Abby is often pretty good, but I am surprised she got her facts so wrong about Russia in the Crimea. For over 15 years Russia and Ukraine have had a treaty or agreement that permits the stationing of what has been on the order of 25,000 or so troops in the Crimea. Moreover, while some troops may have moved from the base, they still remained in Crimea, and only moved at the invitation and/or request of the regional leader of the Crimea in a decision also endorsed by Yanukovich. Whether one likes him or not, Yanukovich is still the only constitutional, and legitimate President of the Ukraine. (He was removed illegally, since the Ukraine Constitution provided that the President could only be removed by popular referendum, and was forced to flee to save his life from the neo-nazi thugs embraced by the US. It is a big power game, but the violations of sovereignty have been committed by the West, and in multiple ways, while Russia has been more scrupulous in observing the rule of law. Some good articles to read may be found at: http://www.consortiumnews. com and at: http://www.alternet.org/print/world/ukraine-crisis-calls-less-bluster-more-common-sense ; and http://rt.com/news/russian-troops-crimea-ukraine-816/ ; and, http://www.lobelog.com/the-wests-ukraine-policy-is-furrowing-british-brows/#more-23317 By the way Ray McGovern at Consortium News was the CIA’s top Russian expert during the Reagan Presidency.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      Thank you for repeating word for word the ridiculous propaganda the Russian authorities and media have been vomiting for weeks.

      There was no “neo-nazi thug” around when he ran, refusing to validate the consitutional reform, the fundamental point of the agreement he has signed, and therefore 1. violating the agreement; 2. abandoning the ship. Big hero.

      If he fled only to “save his life”, he’s not in danger anymore, well protected by his Russian friends, who also consider him – officially – as the “only constitutional and legitimate president”. So where is he now? Shouldn’t he participate in the international negociations? be present during Putin’s press conference? Shouldn’t Lavrov have imposed the presence of his Foreign Secretary at the Paris meeting today? Or maybe the Russians don’t believe what they say themselves (while talking about Ukraine without Ukrainians)? Check it quickly, to update your stanza.

      As for the “neo-nazi thugs” and antisemites, Mr Putin mentioned today, do you mean the oligarch and billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, the new governor of Dnepropetrovsk, member of the European Jewish Congress?

    • Janey says:

      Lord Save Us From Russian Propagandists. The Black Sea Fleet Agreement was read out loud by the US, French and Ukrainian Ambassadors at the UN Security Council. It allows 11,000 troops, and only in the base areas.

      According the Constitution, on the parliament may authorize troop movements outside the Black Sea Fleet Agreement.

      Regarding any articles linked that also shill for the Russians, please see:

      “Who’s on Putin’s Payroll,” using documents on lobbyists and PR agencies who organize and pay certain commentators.

      http://www.cnbc.com/id/101465564

  • ed says:

    Winnie- It might help to get your facts straight, instead of regurgitating the MSM nonsense. Anyway, you’ve obviously not read the articles I’ve cited, such as the ones by McGovern or Parry or Peter Jenkins, etc. It’s really a question of whether you want to deal in fact or remain in a propaganda bubble. Re: the neo-nazi thugs, there is so much out there that your denial is laughable. Anyway I don’t think the Chief Rabbi of Kiev would advise the Jewish population to leave if there were not the serious problem you are so desperate to ignore.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      Why don’t the Russians bring Yanukovich to the talks, if they consider him to be the “only constitutional and legitimate president”?

      Which “Chief Rabbi of Kiev”? And a source would be welcome…

      As for your “facts” (including… Russia Today, good for you!), let me tell you that I have heard the same music exactly, note for note (since it’s a musical blog, let’s keep our metaphors in tune) in Budapest in 1956, in Prague in 1968 (even the French ambassador in the UN noticed the “invitation” trick, one of the oldest in the Soviet book), in Warsaw at least four times, and I’m certainly forgetting something. Signatures change, names and places change, but the score remains tochka v tochku the same.

      Too bad Walter Duranty is dead, he had some class. Or the good old Wilfred Burchett. This one would have found chemical warfare on the Maidan, I’m sure.

  • ed says:

    Winnie- For shame, I’m surprised and shocked. You know as well as I that Budapest and Warsaw are not the same, and to pretend otherwise is just disingenuous. Tsk, Tsk.

    Re: Yanukovich, read the papers that quote what the Russians are saying to learn what they are saying and why.

    The quote for the Chief Rabbi that you asked for is in the Algemeiner Jewish Daily. If you are familiar with it you know it certainly would not misreport such a claim. The Chief Rabbi is Moshe Reuven Azman, and he is not only Chief Rabbi of Kiev, but also of all of Ukraine. So, I stand corrected for understating the point.

    Walter Duranty filed misinformation or disinformation about Russia just as you, and his New York Times, are doing today. Duranty’s claim to fame, or class as you put it was that he was a shameless drunk and sell-out to Stalin. Burchett, on the other hand, got it right before anyone else, and his report on the lasting consequences of radiation from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an example of heroic journalism, not only because his investigation proved it, but also because McArthur and his apparachiks, for all their efforts, could not suppress it. Biological or chemical warfare? Well, documents now being declassified suggest that it was likely used in Korea, and that Imperial Japan’s chief military scientist, Ishii Shiro, who, by then was our prisoner, shared his research with our military’s medical staff. (See also, an earlier discussion in Chapter 1 of “The United States and Biological Warfare- Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea” by STEPHEN ENDICOTT and EDWARD HAGERMAN, Indiana University Press at: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/e/endicott-biological.html

    For a report on Japan’s use of these in WWII, see: JAPANESE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE ATROCITIES AND THE U.S. COVER-UP at: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/war.crimes/World.war.2/Jap%20Bio-Warfare.htm )

    Good luck with your research. It’s all there if you look.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      Tell me what’s “not the same” in Budapest and Warsaw? Because the propaganda was just the same, and the same as today. They don’t have to look for anything new, it’s still working perfectly.

      Here’s about Moshe Reuven Azman.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Reuven_Azman

      Thanks for the Burchett glorification. It’s so refreshing. Makes me young again.

      And yet : Why don’t the Russians bring Yanukovich to the talks, if they consider him to be the “only constitutional and legitimate president”?

  • Peter S. says:

    Gounot, don’t be so naive to take the position of the war mongers here, the US mainly, who are using this and are creating unrest and division, in order to progress in their geopolitical agenda. Spare us the US propaganda.

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEgJ0oo3OA8

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/ukraine-bugged-call-catherine-ashton-urmas-paet

    This is explosive. And not surprising, since it follows the textbook…

    Concerning the Jews in Ukraine, here is the source:

    http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/1.575732

    • Gonout Backson says:

      Thanks for the Haaretz source. Moshe Reuven Azman is one of four candidates to the title of Grand Rabbi of Kiev. What have the four others said?

      His declaration is dated 22th of February. That was two weeks ago. Name, please, all the antisemitic incidents in Kiev and/or Ukraine, provoked by the Ukrainian “fascists”.

      As for the Paet/Ashton conversation, this is one personal opinion of one official, based on one suspicion supposedly expressed by one single, anonymous person, repeated during a private conversation (recorded and published by whom? Rabbit’s Friends and Relations, I presume?). Seven degrees of separation from a proof.

      And yet again : Why don’t the Russians bring Yanukovich to the talks, if they consider him to be the “only constitutional and legitimate president”? Are they afraid Merkel or Hollande would shoot him?

    • Gonout Backson says:

      The only warmongers I see are not American.

      US a “creating unrest and division”? Maybe you could answer the question I have asked here before, and never got an answer: 50 000 people out in the cold for three months, many of them arrested, beaten, finally shot. How much per capita, per week, per month?

      Apparently that’s what you people think of the “popular will” when it goes the “wrong” way.

      As for the Paet/Ashton conversation, the Guardian link says it all : “conspiracy theory” based on one single, anonymous and unverified testimony, ” telephone calls between western diplomats discussing Ukraine have been bugged”, “The leak came a day after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the snipers may have been opposition provocateurs. The Kremlin-funded Russia Today first carried the leaked call online.” Textbook, you’re so right.

  • ed says:

    Winnie- I forgot to add that it was just revealed through another leaked conversation that was taped- this time between the Estonian foreign minister and your very own Catherine Ashton that the snipers in Kiev were hired by only by the opposition, and were hired to fire on both sides to create street chaos and spread blame on the government. (This was the same modus operandi used in Daraa, Syria in 2011 at the start of the demonstrations in Syria.) I know RT is the site you love to hate, but the taped conversation is best evidence. See: http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/ Whether you can bring yourself to admit it, up to now RT has done a better job on the Ukraine crisis than Reuters, the NY Times, and Washington Post.

    • ed says:

      Winnie- I have another article for you, this one by one of premier experts in the U.S. on Russia, Prof. Stephen Cohen. The article is titled “Distorting Russia- How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine”

      You can access it at: http://www.thenation.com/article/178344/distorting-russia

      Mangia and enjoy.

      • Gonout Backson says:

        Fascinating stuff from Professor Cohen.

        And that’s what we read in The Nation, signed by The Editors: “The president should work with the EU and Russia to preserve Ukraine’s territorial unity, support free elections and allow Ukraine to be part of both the EU and the Russian customs union, while pledging that NATO will not extend itself into Ukraine. It is time to reduce tensions, not draw red lines…”

        Which means two things, if words still mean something :

        1. That Ukraine is a Russian protectorate, with limited sovereignty, and should it one day, after “free elections”, democratically and legally express its wish to join NATO, it should be forbidden do to so, because it would displease Russia.

        2. That red lines should absolutely BE drawn, they just should be put elsewhere, where it pleases The Nation and its Editors.

        That’s Realism and Common Sense for you.

        The Muscovite tropism of the Western left never dies.

  • ed says:

    Here is another excellent analysis by Pepe Escobar titled, “Spring Fails in Ukraine” with valuable links to additional excellent articles and to a one hour press conference with Putin at: http://www.opednews.com/populum/

    Also see: What the US Media Won’t Tell You About Ukraine by Ted Rall at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/04-0 and,

    The Rape of Ukraine: Phase Two Begins by William Engdahl | MARCH 3, 2014 at:

    http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/03/03/the-rape-of-ukraine-phase-two-begins/

    Finally, Ihor Kolomoisky, the new governor of Dnepropetrovsk, is one of the most corrupt oligarchs and his connection to the European Jewish Congress does nothing but bring dishonor to that organization both for its connection to Kolomolsky, and its failure to protect the Jewish community in Ukraine.

    • Gonout Backson says:

      @ed

      “Finally, Ihor Kolomoisky, the new governor of Dnepropetrovsk, is one of the most corrupt oligarchs and his connection to the European Jewish Congress does nothing but bring dishonor to that organization both for its connection to Kolomolsky, and its failure to protect the Jewish community in Ukraine.”

      You mean – my Jew is the Wrong Jew, and your Jew is the Right Jew?

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