Mês: outubro 2017

Russia

Por | 15 out, 2017 | , , |

The Tobolsk Kremlin: Holy Wisdom in Siberia William Blumfield Aug. 18, 2017 Tobolsk. Right: Cathedral of St. Sophia & the Dormition, with sacristy. Left: Bell tower and Intercession Cathedral. Southeast view. Photo: August, 1999. The citadel’s churches connected the distant territory to the capital At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian chemist and photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky invented a complex process for vivid, detailed color photography (see box text below). His vision of photography as a form of education and enlightenment was demonstrated with special clarity through his photographs of architectural monuments in the historic sites throughout the Russian heartland. Cathedral of St. Sophia & Dormition, with bell tower. Northwest view. Photo: June, 1912 / Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky   In June 1912, Prokudin-Gorsky ventured into western Siberia as part of a trip along the Kama-Tobolsk Waterway, a historic link between the European and Asian sides of the Ural Mountains. The part of his journey from Tyumen (on the Tura River) to Tobolsk was on the small paddlewheel steam cutter “Tyumen,” which he photographed. In Tobolsk, he took a number of photographs, including an excellent view of the St. Sophia-Dormition Cathedral, the earliest church monument. My photographs of the cathedral ensemble were taken in the late summer of 1999. Cathedral of St. Sophia & Dormition, with bell tower. Northwest view. Photo: August, 1999 / William Brumfield Until the Soviet period,...

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USA

Por | 15 out, 2017 | , , , |

‘Does the US Have a Future?’ (Book review)   Patrick Fleming Oct. 15, 2017   We are very pleased to announce that longtime RI contributor Gilbert Doctorow has a new book out entitled, “Does the United States Have a Future?“, available now on Amazon. You can find an archive of his articles on RI here. It looks at what the author describes as a ‘tug-of-war’ between the US and Russia, arguing that the US is slowly losing this struggle. Doctorow spends part of each year in St. Petersburg, and has a deft sense of what is happening on the ground in Russia. Fluent in Russian, he is a regular guest on Russia’s leading political talk shows, as well as on RT. This follows on his 2015 book, “Does Russia Have a Future?: Collected (Nonconformist) Essays on Russian, American and European Relations, 2013-15” Both books are collections of the author’s articles, some of which we have carried here. Here are what some of the most respected people Russia watchers are saying about it: Robert Parry. Investigative journalist and founder of Consortiumnews.com Gilbert Doctorow offers powerful and insightful analysis of the crucial events unfolding in what is called the New Cold War, a dangerous, costly and largely unnecessary showdown between the world’s two nuclear-armed superpowers. At the heart of these tensions is a propagandistic distortion of what Russia wants and how it operates. As...

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Aramco

Por | 15 out, 2017 | , , , |

Aramco in Moscow   Mikaprok Oct. 14, 2017   The last week elderly men with painted mustaches covering from head to foot in sheets paid official visit to Russian president. What is going on here? Nobody says anything clear. We can hear only some snatches: “cheap oil”, “S-400”, “a number of agreements of mutual interest.” Between them verbal mixture on “strengthening and structuring relationships”. As usual. With whom are they concreting agreement? In the most powerless state on the planet Earth there is only one interesting asset. Really Interesting, so for 50 years everyone has been dancing around it. Of course we mean “Saudi Aramco” (or SA). Presumably: – The company brings to the treasury of the Saudis 9/10 state revenues; – produces 10.2 million barrels per day (more than the US as a whole); – has hydrocarbons reserves of 261 billion tons (10 times greater than the largest private oil company in the world – ExxonMobil); – the cost of the entire giant estimates from $ 500 billion to $ 3.5 trillion. I did not accidentally write “presumably.” SA is a complex asset: a private company of the state-forming family fund. It is managed [in an] interesting way: all the reporting on the state of the company’s affairs are published personally by the members of the Royal Family. Who, how and when making key decisions – the greatest...

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JCPOA

Por | 12 out, 2017 | , |

Iranian Foreign Minister: ‘Arab Affairs Are Iran’s Business’ ou Foreign meddling has wrought a fractured Middle East     Mohammad Javad Zarif Oct. 9, 2017 With possible decertification looming for the Iran deal, Javad Zarif argues that his country has been unfairly maligned.   Iranians live in a troubled and unstable region. We cannot change geography, but our neighborhood was not always so stormy. Without delving too far back into history—although as an ancient peoples our memories are measured in millennia, not decades or even centuries—it’s safe to say that our region began to experience insecurity and instability when foreign, indeed completely alien powers, arrived and began interfering. The discovery of oil, a drug the West soon became addicted to, only strengthened colonial power projection into our region, and subsequently Cold War rivalry—both major factors in the U.S. and U.K. decision to overthrow the legitimate and democratic government of Iran in 1953—provided the fodder for further meddling by foreign powers and superpowers. Today, what that meddling has wrought is a fractured Middle East. Steadfast allies of the West, rather than considering the plight or aspirations of their own peoples, spend their wealth arming themselves, sending to the West the riches their natural resources provide. They spend billions more of that wealth spreading Wahabbism—a medieval ideology of hate and exclusion—from the Far East to the Americas. They support organized non-state...

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Russia-hating

Por | 12 out, 2017 | , , |

LUNATIC RUSSIA-HATING IN WASHINGTON IS 70 YEARS OLD   John Helmer Oct. 11, 2017   Joseph Alsop (lead image, centre) and George Kennan (right) started the kind of Russia-hating in Washington which,  today, President Vladimir Putin, like the businessmen around him,  think of as a novelty that cannot last for long. Alsop was a fake news fabricator, and such a narcissist as to give the bow-ties he wore a bad name. Kennan was a psychopath who alternated bouts of aggression to prove himself with bouts of depression over his cowardice. For them, Russia was a suitable target. The Washington Post was the newspaper which gave their lunacy public asylum. This, according to a fresh history by a university professor from California, started in 1947, long before the arrival in Washington of the anti-communist phobia known after the name of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Russia-hating was an American upper-class phenomenon, cultivated in the offices, cocktail parties, clubs, and mansions of the deep state, as it emerged out of World War II. It needed a new enemy to thrive; it fastened on Russia (aka the Soviet Union) as the enemy. McCarthyism was an American lower-class phenomenon. It focused on the loyalty or disloyalty of the upper-class deep-staters. That wasn’t the same thing as Russia-hating; Wall Street bankers, Boston lawyers, homosexuals, Jews, communists, were all the enemy. As the Senator from Wisconsin characterized...

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