Trolling Russia
By
Israel Shamir

The
edifice of world post-1991 order is collapsing right now before our
eyes. President Putin’s decision to give a miss to the Auschwitz
pilgrimage, right after his absence in Paris at the Charlie festival,
gave it the last shove. It was good clean fun to troll Russia, as long
as it stayed the course. Not anymore. Russia broke the rules.
Until now, Russia, like a country bumpkin in Eton, tried to belong. It
attended the gathering of the grandees where it was shunned, paid its
dues to European bodies that condemned it, patiently suffered ceaseless
hectoring of the great powers and irritating baiting of East European
small-timers alike. But something broke down. The lad does not want to
belong anymore; he picked up his stuff and went home - just when they
needed him to knee in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz gathering is an annual Canossa of Western leaders where they
bewail their historic failure to protect the Jews and swear their
perennial obedience to them. This is a more important religious rite of
our times, the One Ring to rule them all, established in 2001, when the
Judeo-American empire had reached the pinnacle of its power. The Russian
leader had duly attended the events. This year, they will have to do
without him. Israeli ministers already have expressed their deep
dissatisfaction for this was Russia’s Red Army that saved the Jews in
Auschwitz, after all. Russia’s absence will turn the Holocaust memorial
day into a parochial, West-only, event. Worse, Russia’s place will be
taken by Ukraine, ruled by unrepentant heirs to Hitler’s Bandera.
This
comes after the French ‘Charlie’ demo, also spurned by Russia. The West
hinted that Russia’s sins would be forgiven, up to a point, if she
joined, first the demo, and later, the planned anti-terrorist coalition,
but Russia did not take the bait. This was a visible change, for
previously, Russian leaders eagerly participated in joint events and
voted for West-sponsored resolutions. In 2001, Putin fully supported
George Bush’s War on Terrorism in the UN and on the ground. As recently
as 2011, Russia agreed with sanctions against North Korea and Iran. As
for coming for a demonstration, the Russians could always be relied
upon. This time, the Russians did not come, except for the token
presence of the foreign minister Mr. Lavrov. This indomitable successor
of Mr. Nyet left the event almost immediately and went - to pray in the
Russian church, in a counter-demonstration, of sorts, against Charlie.
By going to the church, he declared that he is not Charlie.
For
the Charlie Hebdo magazine was (and probably is) explicitly
anti-Christian as well as anti-Muslim. One finds on its pages
some very obnoxious cartoons offending the Virgin and Christ, as well as
the pope and the Church. (They never offend Jews, somehow).
A
Russian blogger who’s been exposed to this magazine for the first time,
wrote on his page: I am ashamed that the bastards were dealt with by
Muslims, not by Christians. This was quite a common feeling in Moscow
these days. The Russians could not believe that such smut could be
published and defended as a right of free speech. People planned a demo
against the Charlie, but City Hall forbade it.
Remember, a few years ago, the
Pussy Riot have profaned the St Saviour of Moscow like Femen did in
some great European cathedrals, from
Notre Dame de Paris to
Strasbourg. The Russian government did not wait for vigilante
justice to be meted upon the viragos, but sent them for up to two years
of prison. At the same time, the Russian criminal law has been changed
to include ‘sacrilege’ among ordinary crimes, by general consent. The
Russians do feel about their faith more strongly than the EC rulers
prescribe.
In
Charlie’s France, Hollande’s regime frogmarched the unwilling people
into a quite unnecessary gay marriage law, notwithstanding
one-million-strong protest demonstrations by Catholics. Femen
despoiling the churches were never punished; but a church warden who
tried to prevent that, was heavily fined. France has a long
anti-Christian tradition, usually described as “laic”, and its grand
anti-Church coalition of Atheists, Huguenots and Jews coalesced in
Dreyfus Affair days. Thus Lavrov’s escape to the church was a
counter-demonstration, saying: Russia is for Christ, and Russia is not
against Muslims.
While the present western regime is anti-Christian and anti-Muslim, it
is pro-Jewish to an extent that defies a rational explanation. France
had sent thousands of soldiers and policemen to defend Jewish
institutions, though this defence antagonises their neighbours. While
Charlie are glorified for insulting Christians and Muslims,
Dieudonné has been sent to jail (just for a day, but with great
fanfare) for annoying Jews. Actually, Charlie Hebdo dismissed a
journalist for one sentence allegedly disrespectful for Jews. This
unfairness is a source of aggravation: Muslims were laughed out of court
when they complained against particularly vile Charlie’s cartoons, but
Jews almost always win when they go to the court against their
denigrators. (Full disclosure: I was also sued by LICRA, the French
Jewish body, while my French publisher was devastated by their legal
attacks).
The
Russians don’t comprehend the Western infatuation with Jews, for Russian
Jews have been well assimilated and integrated in general society. The
narrative of Holocaust is not popular in Russia for one simple reason:
so many Russians from every ethnic background lost their lives in the
war, that there is no reason to single out Jews as supreme victims.
Millions died at the siege of Leningrad; Belarus lost a quarter of its
population. More importantly, Russians feel no guilt regarding Jews:
they treated them fairly and saved them from the Nazis. For them, the
Holocaust is a Western narrative, as foreign as JeSuisCharlie. With
drifting of Russia out of Western consensus, there is no reason to
maintain it.
This
does not mean the Jews are discriminated against. The Jews of Russia are
doing very well, thank you, without Holocaust worship: they occupy the
highest positions in the Forbes list of Russia’s rich, with a combined
capital of $122 billion, while all rich ethnic Russians own only $165
billion, according to the Jewish-owned
source. Jews run the most celebrated media shows in prime time on
the state TV; they publish newspapers; they have full and unlimited
access to Putin and his ministers; they usually have their way when they
want to get a plot of land for their communal purposes. And anti-Semitic
propaganda is punishable by law – like anti-Christian or anti-Muslim
abuse, but even more severely. Still, it is impossible to imagine a
Russian journalist getting sack like CNN anchor
Jim Clancy or BBC’s
Tim Willcox for upsetting a Jew or speaking against Israel.
Russia preserves its plurality, diversity and freedom of opinion. The
pro-Western Russian media – Novaya Gazeta of oligarch Lebedev,
the owner of the British newspaper Independent – carries the
JeSuis slogan and speaks of the Holocaust, as well as demands to restore
Crimea to the Ukraine. But the vast majority of Russians do support
their President, and his civilizational choice. He expressed it when he
went to midnight Christmas mass in a small village church in far-away
province, together with orphans and refugees from the Ukraine. And he
expressed it by refusing to go to Auschwitz.
2
Neither willingly nor easily did Russia break ranks. Putin tried to take
Western baiting in his stride: be it Olympic games, Syria confrontation,
gender politics, Georgian border, even Crimea-related sanctions. The
open economic warfare was a game-changer. Russia felt attacked by
falling oil prices, by rouble trouble, by credit downgrading. These
developments are considered an act of hostility, rather than the result
of “the hidden hand of the market”.
Russians love conspiracia, as James Bond used to say. They do not
believe in chance, coincidence nor natural occurrences, and are likely
to consider a falling meteorite or an earthquake - a result of hostile
American action, let alone a fall in the rouble/dollar exchange rate.
They could be right, too, though it is hard to prove.
Regarding oil price fall, the jury is out. Some say this action by
Saudis is aimed at American fracking companies, or alternatively it’s a
Saudi-American plot against Russia. However, the price of oil is not
formed by supply-demand, but by financial instruments, futures and
derivatives. This virtual demand-and-supply is much bigger than the real
one. When hedge funds stopped to buy oil futures, price downturn became
unavoidable, but were the funds directed by politicians, or did they act
so as Quantitative Easing ended?
The
steep fall of the rouble could be connected to oil price downturn, but
not necessarily so. The rouble is not involved in oil price forming. It
could be an action by a very big financial institution. Soros broke the
back of British pound in 1991; Korean won, Thai bath and Malaysian
ringgit suffered similar fate in 1998. In each case, the attacked
country lost about 40% of its GDP. It is possible that Russia was
attacked by financial weapons directed from New York.
The
European punitive sanctions forbade long-term cheap credit to Russian
companies. The Russian state does not need loans, but Russian companies
do. Combination of these factors put a squeeze on Russian pockets. The
rating agencies kept downgrading Russian rating to almost junk level,
for political reasons, I was told. As they were deprived of credit,
state companies began to hoard dollars to pay later their debts, and
they refrained from converting their huge profits to roubles, as they
did until now. The rouble fell drastically, probably much lower than it
had to.
This
is not pinpoint sanctions aimed at Putin’s friends. This is a full-blown
war. If the initiators expected Russians to be mad at Putin, they
miscalculated. The Russian public is angry with the American organisers
of the economical warfare, not with its own government. The pro-Western
opposition tried to demonstrate against Putin, but very few people
joined them.
Ordinary Russians kept a stiff upper lip. They did not notice the
sanctions until the rouble staggered, and even then they shopped like
mad rather than protested. In the face of shrinking money, they did not
buy salt and sugar, as their grandparents would have. Their battle cry
against hogging was “Do not take more than two Lexus cars per family,
leave something for others!”
Perhaps, the invisible financiers went too far. Instead of being cowed,
the Russians are preparing for a real long war, as they and their
ancestors have historically fought – and won. It is not like they have a
choice: though Americans insist Russia should join their
War-on-Terrorism-II, they do not intend to relinquish sanctions.
The
Russians do not know how to deal with a financial attack. Without
capital restrictions, Russia will be cleaned out. Russian Central bank
and Treasury people are strict monetarists, capital restrictions are
anathema for them. Putin, being a liberal himself, apparently trusts
them. Capital flight has taken huge proportions. Unless Russia uses the
measures successfully tried by Mohammad Mahathir of Malaysia, it will
continue. At present, however, we do not see sign of change.
This
could be the incentive for Putin to advance in Ukraine. If the Russians
do not know how to shuffle futures and derivatives, they are expert in
armour movements and tank battles. Kiev regime is also spoiling for a
fight, apparently pushed by the American neocons. It is possible that
the US will get more than what it bargained for in the Ukraine.
One
can be certain that Russians will not support the Middle Eastern crusade
of NATO, as this military action was prepared at the Charlie demo in
Paris. It is far from clear who killed the cartoonists, but Paris and
Washington intend to use it for reigniting war in the Middle East. This
time, Russia will be in opposition, and probably will use it as an
opportunity to change the uncomfortable standoff in the Ukraine. Thus
supporters of peace in the Middle East have a good reason to back
Russia.
Israel Shamir works in Moscow and Jaffa; he can be reached on
adam@israelshamir.net
Language editing Ken Freeland