Babchenko was dead, to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. News reports had been aired, mournful obituaries published, outraged tweets cursing Moscow flew hither and thither. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman condemned “the Russian totalitarian machine” for assassinating a journalist simply because of his “honesty and principled stance”. UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson proclaimed that he was “Appalled to see another vocal Russian journalist, Arkady Babchenko, murdered.”
Not a soul questioned it: old Babchenko was as dead as a door-nail.
And then, like the ghost of an old business partner announcing three Christmas visitations, there he was. Everyone knew that Babchenko was dead. They didn’t suspect it, they weren’t relatively confident about it. They knew it.
And it was all fake.
This article makes a hugely important point: had Babchenko decided to stay "dead" and gone into hiding, his death would have been taken as unquestionable fact by unquestioning press & politicians, and anyone doubting it labeled a crazy conspiracy theorist.https://t.co/7jlId4oYR6
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 1, 2018
The main purpose of this article is to draw attention to an important op-ed by an Off-Guardian editor which asks us to consider a hugely significant hypothetical question: what if Babchenko had, for whatever reason, remained “dead”? What if, instead of appearing at a press conference the day after his faked assassination publicly apologizing to his poor traumatized wife, the controversial Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko had put on a wig, obtained some fake papers, and started a new life in Hawaii? What would have happened then?
Anyone who has ever publicly expressed doubt about any part of the establishment Russia narrative already knows the answer to that question. Any skepticism toward the CIA/CNN-authorized official story about the Skripals, Douma, the Democratic Party emails published by WikiLeaks or what have you is immediately attacked as deranged, bat shit crazy conspiratorial lunacy suitable only for helping Alex Jones sell fluoride-resistant testicle supplements. Anyone disputing the claim that Putin had personally ordered the assassination of Arkady Babchenko would have been publicly smeared as a Kremlin shill by #Resistance pundits and senior Atlantic Council fellows, and anyone questioning whether he was dead at all would have been laughed out of the room.
But he wasn’t assassinated, he isn’t dead, and pretty much the whole thing appears to have been fake from top to bottom. As explained here by Moon of Alabama (who is a great source of information and frankly far more skillful than I am at picking apart these anti-Russia narratives as they emerge), “The killing, the killer and the operator who hired the killer were all fakes.”
Let me break that down a bit:
- The “victim” of the assassination, Babchenko, was plainly faking.
- Borys Herman, the suspect now in custody alleged to be the middle man responsible for hiring an assassin at the behest of the Russian government, says he was working with Ukrainian security services to help fake Babchenko’s death.
- Alexey Tsymbalyuk, the Ukrainian citizen Herman “hired” to “kill” Babchenko, was also reportedly working with authorities to fake the assassination.
In short, as far as the information we have access to right now is concerned, there is no body, no victim, no middle man, and no assassin. All there is is the Ukrainian government saying in an authoritative tone of voice that the Kremlin probably wanted to kill a journalist who has been critical of Moscow. Which, of course, they’d have every motive in the world to say about a major geopolitical rival of the western empire that Kiev is currently aligned with.
New on MoA:
Ukraine – The Babchenko Hoax Was Part Of A Corporate Raid
https://t.co/3cYpu38YRN
Pic: Babchenko "killer" Alexey Tsymbalyuk pic.twitter.com/Zhxke0VrNh— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) June 1, 2018
Moon of Alabama lays out a solid case that this particular incident had a lot more to do with a corporate power grab by corrupt plutocrats than journalists or geopolitics; Russia just makes a convenient thing to blame in the current unquestioning environment where western power structures are all too eager to concoct a narrative against Russia, in much the same way a black man could be easily framed for the crimes of a white man in the Jim Crow American south. The western news media was told to report something, and they unquestioningly did as they were told.
Just sit with the implications of what this means for a minute. Really let it sink in nice and deep. How hard was it for the Ukrainian government to do that? How much resistance did they encounter in lying to the world about an assassination, instantly blaming Moscow with no evidence whatsoever, and transforming a complete falsehood into established fact? Any whatsoever? At all?
The establishment spin machine is churning its gears trying to re-frame this into something less incriminating, but the facts are already out there: any government in the western empire can, at any time, concoct a lie about Russia, and there are exactly zero safeguards in place preventing that lie from being promulgated as established, unquestionable fact by western mass media and politicians.
Appalled to see another vocal Russian journalist, Arkady Babchenko, murdered. My thoughts are with his wife and young daughter. We must defend freedom of speech and it is vital that those responsible are now held to account.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 30, 2018
Murder. This is business as usual for Putin in Ukraine, in UK, in US, while Macron does TOTAL business as usual with Putin in St. Petersburg. After 298 murdered on MH17, why should Putin worry? RIP. https://t.co/yhU4f9UC9C
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 29, 2018
Well this aged well.. #Babchenko https://t.co/5slz5XP1tZ pic.twitter.com/MkU2zeul1r
— The SKWAWKBOX (@skwawkbox) May 30, 2018
The US-centralized empire has been plotting the destruction of Russia for many years. There is far too much power and money invested in the unipolar world for anyone at the top to willingly risk the re-emergence of another rival superpower, be it Russia, China, or an unsympathetic alliance in the Middle East. Any analyses of the accusations America or its allies make against any of these governments which do not factor in their clear and obvious motives to manipulate the narrative are inherently flawed, but no one ever includes that obvious factor in their analysis. There is a built-in assumption that only governments like Russia or Iran ever lie, and that western governments have safeguards in place to prevent that. Plainly, they do not.
Every single disputed accusation against the Russian government is fair game for loud, aggressive, thorough, unrelenting skepticism. Every single one, without exception. Anyone who wants you to believe otherwise is brain poison.
____________________________
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14 responses to “The One Question We Should All Be Asking About Establishment Russia Hysteria”
Caitlin, you may be the smartest woman I don’t know. I just found your writings recently (someone linked from either Vox Day or Unz, can’t recall) and man, are you spot on. Really enjoying it and plan to support you. Keep writing!
This absurdity is also taking place in Canada. For some time our national broadcaster, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and other mainstream media seemed to take every opportunity to view the election of Donald Trump as part of a broad-based conspiracy by the Russian government. Although I’ve not listened to or read much Canadian media in the past few weeks, prior to this almost every time I checked on our media there was much crowing about the election of Donald Trump and the interference by the Russians. In fact, it got to a point that I could almost guarantee every news hour commentary on CBC radio would include some disparaging ‘news’ item about this travesty of democracy; I often thought to myself: what country am I living in? It must be the US considering how focused the news was on these items. I’ve virtually stopped listening to CBC radio or reading mainstream Canadian media. It’s so obviously biased and almost always simply a mouthpiece for the latest government/elitist propaganda. The West just seems to be falling further and further down the rabbit’s hole…
It’s just the same here, Steve, especially with PBS and NPR. My husband calls the New Yorker Trump Weekly. I want to invent a computer program for lying news readers, lying editors, and lying writers: As soon as the lie comes out of their mouth or pen they are shot into outer space! Isn’t that a nice fantasy?
What if…..what if the point of this little theatrical episode has another reason. As many have stated, now when someone says that Russia is responsible for, oh, I don’t know, pick something at random. Doesn’t matter what. How much easier is it now to say “well, they blamed Russia for that fake murder, so this is probably just another fake story.” So then we can assume that everything that might possibly be orchestrated by Russia will be assumed to be another fake story. This may be the best political chess game ever created. Just something to ponder.
So, somehow the Ukrainian government, which is literally at war with Russia, decided to boost Russia’s credibility? Is that what you are suggesting here?
Ukraine has been, since the coup, a haven of disinformation. The party that took over after Maidan, Svoboda, formerly known as the Socialist Nationalist party, linked to the “Joseph Goebbels Political Research Centre” in Ukraine.
In other words, to think that this was somehow intentionally done to boost Russia’s credibility is completely insane.
Someone scattered trash and garbage all over the street on which I live. It had to be the Russians. Who else could it be since, among the trash was an empty container of Russian caviar?
Someone with more musical talent than I needs to do an altered cover of an old song by the Police
Are You Dead Sir Babchenko
Sir Babchenko are you dead?
Are You Dead Sir Babchenko
Sir Babchenko are you dead?
Is everyone Naive in here?
Is everyone Naive in here?
Nobody but liars in here
Nobody but liars
Is everyone Naive in here?
The absurdity is compounded by the fact that these same people complain about “fake news”.
(suggestion for)Term of Art: “brain poison” –> R.Dawkins’ “virus of the mind”
The upside of all this is that from now on whenever there’s a false-flag event designed to incriminate Russia , we can simply say: “It was just another ‘Babchenko’ “, and everyone will immediately understand.
Marko, you nailed it……..I will be saying this from now on…
The media is nothing but a circus. Badly skilled jugglers throwing things in the air hoping nothing will fall. Seems like the clowns are dropping more plates than a waitress at a geasy burger joint. The waitress looses her job, but the clowns in mainstream media drop lies that fall apart on inspection and get to keep their high-paying propaganda-pusher jobs.
Great work Caitlin!
Amongst the ruling class and their scribes, there is absolutely no penalty for lying and deceit. They just let the lies sink into the public’s consciousness and then move on to the next one. Rarely, if ever, is there a meaningful correction or mea culpa. When will people wake up to the fact that they are constant targets of false propaganda from their own governments?
So clearly articulated and well understood – just brilliant Caitlin!