Sweden—a victim of Russophobic propaganda

It is frightening to see how the Swedish government, which, I suppose, considers itself more open than the center-right government we had before 2014, nevertheless seems to be the vassals of the U.S. The ever-increasing realization in Europe that the Western Empire poses a threat to life all over the world has apparently escaped the Swedes. One after the other EU countries are now seeing that it is not Russia that is a threat to a possible future world peace. This possibility has now been torpedoed by Washington’s aggressive stance towards Russia and Putin.

What advantages does the Swedish government see in inciting the entire Swedish population to a completely unfounded Russophobia? Do our ministers really think Sweden will get a better deal in the world when nuclear war has devastated vast areas of our planet and the survivors are struggling for air in the radioactive atmosphere? The priority now must surely be to avoid a third world war. How could this possibly be avoided? Of course, by giving up on groveling before the empire and instead realize that the huge multinational companies that now unscrupulously control the world must be deprived of their power over the US and European governments. They are in full swing to destroy our planet without the slightest thought of what the earth will look like tomorrow—what we are leaving to future generations.

Do for once take off your black-tinted glasses and look at Putin. He clearly had decided to lie low at the beginning of the empire’s aggressive installation of military bases that now surround Russia in the west and south [1] until Washington definitely went too far in their aggression by staging the coup in Ukraine and by bandying about the totally false accusation that Moscow had invaded Crimea to force people at gunpoint to vote for Russia in its referendum in March 2014. An invasion never took place. The Crimean referendum took place under very calm conditions. There are countless testimonies as to how the voting was going on. If there were any disturbing incidents, they clearly came from the Crimean Tatar indigenous population [2] who now want their own referendum. The majority of Crimean Tatars boycotted the referendum. There is also a minority of Ukrainians in Crimea, and it is obvious that a referendum of this kind must create frictions between the different ethnic communities in Crimea.

After clear evidence had been established (satellite photos, radar observations, etc.) that Kiev, clearly with Washington’s approval—or even on their initiative—was the culprit in the downing of the Malaysian passenger plane, MH17, in the area near the independent Donbass region, Putin summoned an international press conference and spoke calmly and objectively about all the aggressions that had led to the coup in Ukraine in February 2014 and about the downing of the MH17 in July 2014. The plane was on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.

Eric Zuesse in OffGuardian writes in the article “Obama Requests Military Support for Possible War Against Russia,” “The West keeps asserting that Russia is somehow in the wrong here. However, since even the head of Stratfor [3] has called what Obama did in Ukraine “the most blatant coup in history,” and since the fact that it was a U.S. coup has been documented extensively on cellphone and other videos, and in the most thorough academic investigation that has been performed of the matter—and was even acknowledged by Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, a participant in the coup, to have been a coup—and since evidence survives on the Internet of the U.S. Embassy’s preparations as early as 1 March 2013 for the February 2014 coup; and since even the U.S. government’s hired polls showed that Crimeans rejected overwhelmingly the U.S. coup and supported rejoining Russia; the question still needs to be answered: What is the basis of the West’s aggressive actions threatening Russia’s national security other than its own imperialist ambitions towards Russia camouflaged with the lies about an aggressive Russia and an aggressive President Putin, [which] the Western mass media have been bombarding the public with? And, that’s a very worrisome basis—worrisome regarding, essentially, a type of dictatorship in the West, rather than any dictatorship outside it. The aggression and the threat here seem clearly to be coming from the West, against the East.”

Crimea’s reunification with Russia (or, as the Empire calls it “Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea”) was, as we all know, the signal for the sanctions from Europe and the U.S. against Russia. Europe more and more sees these sanctions as a compulsion that Washington imposed on them, and they are definitely not in their own best interest. The EU countries’ economies have suffered from the sanctions—and of course among them is Sweden. But Swedish ministers still make a loud fuss about the need for Russia to give back Crimea to Ukraine [4] before the sanctions can be suspended.

However, they miss the most important and definitely illegal event about the Kiev coup in February 2014, which of course made Putin’s support of Crimeans even more urgent. Because of the Russian naval base in Crimea, there has always been a military presence there, but talking about a Russian invasion is pure propaganda. The Russian population in Crimea definitely did not want to belong to Ukraine, especially after the neo-Nazi coup that was supported and financed by Washington. Talk about ‘illegality’! The U.S. has been the culprit in one coup after the other, not to mention the total destruction of one country after the other, because they were seen as being in the way of total American domination of oil and gas—and of the world.

Do the Swedish people know that Russia is encircled by numerous US military bases? Is there anyone in an official position after Olof Palme, who has understood where the threat to peace is coming from? Do the Swedish people know that Sweden was one of the 13 countries that participated in the American war games that took place in June in Poland right on the Russian border? (Are NATO’s Massive War Games on Russia’s border a pretext to World War III?)

The Swedish government is playing a scary double game. They do not join NATO for fear of getting the Swedish people up in arms. However, while boasting their false neutrality (as they did during World War II) they allow US/NATO to install military bases in Sweden. Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist assures that no nuclear weapons will be installed in Sweden. Sure, you have to believe what the defense minister himself is saying. No, the truth is that the Swedish people must not know how this double game has been staged. (Sweden Joins NATO’s Emerging War against Russia)

US/NATO’s deafening and aggressive political and military propaganda and actions are in stark contrast to Putin’s low-key, both political and military, defensive response. What is now needed is a clear vision for the different populations in the West.

President Hollande in France, who is generally a completely mediocre head of government, has surprisingly enough said in a public statement that we Europeans must realize that Russia is part of Europe and that we must create peaceful relations with Russia, not the U.S., and support Putin. I have very rarely any good words to say about the French politicians, but in this case it seems to open up some hope for a turn in the general Russophobia. Also, several German politicians (but not, however, Frau Merkel—yet) have spoken publicly for the resumption of trade and peaceful relations with Russia. These sanctions are not based on any reality. They are based solely on American propaganda and outright lies. But NATO and the EU are probably in a state of dissolution, and we must hope that the world one day very soon, before the time runs out, realizes what must be done to save our planet. Putin wants peace, no aggression, no expansionism. Putin is not Stalin and Russia is not the USSR. This simple truth seems, however, to have escaped most Swedes and their government.

Notes:

[1] The Empire also has 400 military bases encircling China. Besides aggression in the South China Sea.

[2] The Tatars are a Turkic people who mainly live in Tatarstan in Russia where they represent a slight majority. (There are also Tatars in various parts of the former Soviet Union, including the Baltic countries.) Tatars constitute 12% of the Crimean population and they now want their independence. This is a problem that must be treated without aggressive methods, but it has nothing to do with either Russia or the Western empire, although Erdogan in Turkey is trying to spread unrest in Crimea by supporting the Tartar rebellious mood and use them as a weapon against Russia. Putin, Erdogan’s arch-enemy, even if ultimately he has been forced to apologize in public for his attacks on Russia—primarily the shooting down by the Russian fighter aircraft Su-24 in November 2015 in the area on the Turkish-Syrian border.

[3] Strategic Forecasting, Inc.—known as Stratfor—is an American publisher and global intelligence company founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas. Dave Sikora is president and chief executive officer. Fred Burton is Stratfor’s vice president of intelligence.

[4] Crimea has been part of Russia since the 17 hundreds, but in 1954

Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine.

Translated from essay in Swedish by the author.
“Skrämmande svensk Rysslandspolitik—brev frånFrankrike“

Siv O’Neall is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France. Her insightful essays are republished and read worldwide. She can be reached at siv@axisoflogic.com.