Clearly Mr Sedelmeyer has a beef with the Russian Federation’s charismatic leader, and with Mother Russia herself, but substitute black, Jewish, Islamic, or even Chinese for Russia in that sentence, and it takes on an entirely different meaning.
Racism, so-called, has been and remains one of the most controversial issues of our age, meaning usually white racism. Of course, Russian is not a race, but neither is Islam, so let’s settle for xenophobia. Fear/loathing of strangers, of “the other” is universally condemned, but when the other is Russian, that’s different.
Older readers will doubtless remember the Soviet Union, the Cold War, perhaps even the Cuban missile crisis. There was much fear-mongering in those troubled times, but even then people did not generally speak of Russians as evil; we all knew and understood it was the Soviet system — communism, socialism, call it what you will — that was the real problem, not Russian DNA.
When Trump ran for President he made it clear he wanted America to have good relations with Russia, and indeed with China. The principal reason for this is not difficult to understand; the biggest political problem the world faces today is not the arms race or evil empires but international terrorism, specifically at this moment Islamist terrorism. Russia can be an ally in that fight. Indeed, it has been. In March 2011, Russian intelligence warned the US authorities about the Tsarnaev brothers. This warning was ignored; the result was the terrible Boston Marathon bombing.
Even away from terrorism there has been cooperation between American and Russian law enforcement. A decade earlier, the Blue Orchid paedophile ring that was operating from Russia was shut down by a joint operation between American and Russian agencies. This led inter alia to the arrest of American paedophile Glenn Martikian who was tricked into returning home by an American undercover agent. On March 27, 2001, the headline in the Houston Chronicle read U.S., Russia unite against kiddie porn.
Away from terrorism and crime there has been and is ongoing cooperation between American and Russian agencies in the form of the International Space Station. All this begs the question, why should any American politician or mainstream media outlet whip up hatred against Russia?
Did Russia or some agency of the Russian Government interfere with the American elections? That depends how you define interfere. Here is comedian Lee Camp explaining what he considers to be the full extent of the interference mainstream media talking heads and leading Democrats would have you believe influenced voters to put Donald Trump in the White House rather than Hillary Clinton. Before you play the video be warned that Mr Camp is not averse to using the odd swear word.
So has the Russian Government been totally blameless, has it done nothing pernicious in the West? In November 2006, Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London; he died a horrible death by polonium poisoning. Last year, another Russian national and his daughter were targeted similarly in the UK, this time by a nerve agent. It is generally acknowledged that whoever was behind these attacks had access to toxins that only government agents have. It seems almost certain therefore that someone in Russia authorised both the successful assassination and the failed attempt, but it does not follow that the order came from the top. And it certainly does not follow that Russian DNA is responsible.
Whoever carried out these attacks, be it a rogue operation or otherwise, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, indeed a prime suspect in the Litvinenko assassination has been named, although the Russian Government has refused to extradite him. There is though no reason for the latest incident, the Skripal case, to be allowed to poison US/Russia, UK/Russia or anything/Russia relations generally. And before anyone becomes too virtuous, let us not forget that on occasion our own governments have carried out what amount to extra-judicial executions, ie murders.
It is clear that there are people in Washington and elsewhere who are intent on demonising not only Vladimir Putin but Russia and the Russian people themselves. The United States may be the world’s dominant super-power, but an outright war with Russia would leave us all losers, even without the use of nuclear weapons. We have to stop this madness whatever the cost, and if our governments won’t act, we must. In the UK, the Stop The War Coalition has been in the forefront of this movement. There are similar groups elsewhere, including Australia.
[The above article was first published on Medium, April 20, 2019].
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