The Saga of the Russian delegation’s flight just to reach Skopje, Macedonia shows the nature of the hybrid war with Russia—Bulgaria wouldn’t allow the passage of Russia’s plane through its airspace because Maria Zakharova is part of the delegation and she’s been sanctioned by the EU for some idiotic reason; so, the Russians had to fly via Turkey and Greece to reach their destination. It was even questioned whether Russians would be invited at all; fortunately. the host nation insisted. OSCE—Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was the paramount European institution until war began being waged upon it by the Outlaw US Empire and its bought stooges within the EU. In December 2021 when Russia made its security proposals, the key OSCE Treaties were all mentioned, and I wrote a report that integrated them with all the diplomatic chatter going on at the time. Readers will see them mentioned again in Lavrov’s remarks. The OSCE had a bright outlook when it was first organized, but it is close to becoming defunct as Lavrov notes and tells us why. I’m sure this is a lecture Lavrov would prefer not having to give, but in this case it becomes his duty. Did those across the table hear or did they ignore what some would consider a pest at their tea party? It’s clear from the MFA’s website that Lavrov held several meetings on the sidelines, so it’s clear some want to continue dialogue with Russia. You’ll also read Lavrov reiterate the facts of the matter—facts that NATO propaganda has turned upside-down and inside-out while basing its policy on the lies its produced. Will Lavrov’s efforts result in any change, meaning a reversal of the OSCE’s demise? Or will it die before the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, which is in
I should note now that it's been announced in media reports, the Baltics and Poland declined to attend as they're scared of Lavrov's ability to tell the truth and expose facts. Their balking shows the great danger in believing your own propaganda and falsification of events. Fear is also a likely issue with the four--the inability of looking at who you're lying to.
And I should add this TASS report:
"Bulgaria’s refusal to open its airspace to a Russian plane carrying Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not stop the Russian delegation from taking part in the OSCE ministerial meeting.
"Asked what impact the Bulgarian airspace ban had on the Russian delegation, Zakharova told Rossiya-24 TV: "Well, only the route."
"The spokeswoman said that the Bulgarian authorities had no legal grounds to ban her from being on board the plane, which was flying non-stop across the country's airspace. "There is no logic or law behind this, none. But once again I say, what will happen next? I mean, they have to ask themselves that question. Well, apparently, in the heat of this Russophobia it is no longer about asking questions," she said.
"Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Macedonia’s capital of Skopje for an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting. His plane traveled through Greece even though the flight had initially been expected to pass through Bulgaria’s airspace. However, Sofia refused to open its airspace to the top Russian diplomat’s aircraft because Zakharova was onboard. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman slammed Bulgaria’s decision as "dangerous stupidity." According to her, for the first time in history, a government banned a person onboard a plane instead of the plane, because according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry’s statement, the aircraft had permission to cross the country’s airspace." https://tass.com/politics/1714401
Russia has also discovered that, despite having provided membes with sensational information of US bio- chemical warfare preparations, it is no longer wanted on the OPCW's 40 member directorate.
What a surprise!
As Randoph Bourne wrote more than a century ago "War is the health of the state". It's a dictum that applies in spades to alliances designed for war, always tending towards war, preparing and arming and training for war such as NATO.
And the last thing they need is informed criticism from representatives ofthestates that they have been planning to dismantle for their entire existence.
Meanwhile Lithuania is provoking Russians in Kalingrad while Finland hosts naval exercises within sight of St Petersburg. Both provocations are made to order from Washington- as is the genocide in Gaza.
Makes you wonder what NATO thinks it might do if Russia were to go beyond Ukraine as NATO is visibly no match for Russia militarily. Meanwhile, EU buys as much LNG as it can from Russia and refuses to cut the gas imported via Ukraine.
thanks very much karl.. it's an important discussion and lavrov is brilliant as always... it is a shame more people in the west are unable to read his sage words here... it can't be allowed as it would cast everything that is happening at present in a very different light...
Not just the West but globally. Sharing this material helps broaden the illumination it brings. This is electronic Samizdat as are most of my postings.
You mentioned the meetings he had on the sidelines, and the question of what the responses were to his speech. I look forward to hearing about any tidbits you discover . . . it's hard to imagine that some members aren't having doubts about the current course.
At the MFA's website are a few PRs of the boilerplate sort dealing with some of those meetings. Often it's the who not the what; for example, he met with Armenia's Foreign Minister, which has a high status if you've been following the direction of recent Russian-Armenian relations. MFA's English site has some news, but it's always much less, which is why I view the Russian and translate its contents. https://mid.ru/en/
You do a really good thing in bringing us that translated info.
I still have the feeling, perhaps born of wishful thinking, that the occasional small cracks we see in the anti-Russian wall in Europe will widen and in time, perhaps, crack it wide open.
Viewed objectively, the risk/reward for many of these countries in reconciling with Russia, and through them achieving more fruitful relationships with much of the rest of the world, seems to me heavily slanted in favour of doing so. If I'm reading it right, that real-world, constant gravitational pull may eventually come to dominate.
Russia, China and other nations promote people-to-people relations because they go beyond the scope of state-to-state and help facilitate good open relations. The various international academic competitions Russia holds annually is part of the process. My efforts here are also part of that. It's taken many centuries for humanity to realize it's all together as one, but there are those who don't want to see unity and solidarity because that ruins their schemes for gaining or holding on to power. Multipolarity can be seen as multiple poles of togetherness unifying to promote peace and harmony. The historical trend is in that direction thankfully.
"One of the key components of this policy was the reckless expansion of the bloc to the East, which began after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Although, as it seemed, the end of the bipolar confrontation deprived the North Atlantic Alliance of its raison d'être."
Great phrasing. The main reason for NATO is to feed the US Military Industrial Complex with weapons orders. Hence NATO will (a) always try to expand, independent of any external military threats (there never were any to begin with), and (b) will try to create instability wherever possible to justify (a). NATO is a Mafia-style organization and needs to be shut down. Maybe once the US loses its extraordinary privilege and the Dollars that it creates out of thin air are made worthless, NATO will thankfully disappear. Capitalism is ALL about profit, does not care about human well-being.
Quite correct about NATO. However, there's now the emergence of Social-Capitalism as seen in the Chinese and Russian examples of "Socialism" with their national characteristics. I aim to write about that concept in the near future.
Nov 30, 2023·edited Nov 30, 2023Liked by Karl Sanchez
"If treaties are destroyed, then humanity has backslided toward the barbarism it once sought to escape."
Yes, that seems to me the BIG picture. I've been chewing on it: as the Rule of Law is destroyed, what replaces it is the Rule of Man. Force and violence. Barbarism. It's not that hard to see: either there are laws and people agree to abide by them or not. We agree to enforce them amongst ourselves because we all benefit. If we decide we are better off stealing, then the whole system falls apart.
There's a post apocalyptic Peak Oil narrative, that this relates to EROEI; only way I can get more stuff is by taking it from someone else. And if I can't have it, well, I'll make sure no one else gets it. That's the psychopath response.
Yes, rejecting deviance while exposing and ostracizing deviants is what's happening here at the end of the Age of Plunder. The postulated Shared Future implies sharing must be a basic principle if humanity is to overcome the Fossil Fuel Age.
It's pretty much all been said . I particularly appreciated the use of the existing Ukrainian constitution as a truth club on the heads of the elitist dullards who seem to dominate the Waste, as DunGroanin refers to it. Also another word I never knew 'Samizdat', which is very appropriate now we know that most if not all of the negative propaganda used to characterise the USSR and now the Russian Federation was pure projection.
I should note now that it's been announced in media reports, the Baltics and Poland declined to attend as they're scared of Lavrov's ability to tell the truth and expose facts. Their balking shows the great danger in believing your own propaganda and falsification of events. Fear is also a likely issue with the four--the inability of looking at who you're lying to.
And I should add this TASS report:
"Bulgaria’s refusal to open its airspace to a Russian plane carrying Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not stop the Russian delegation from taking part in the OSCE ministerial meeting.
"Asked what impact the Bulgarian airspace ban had on the Russian delegation, Zakharova told Rossiya-24 TV: "Well, only the route."
"The spokeswoman said that the Bulgarian authorities had no legal grounds to ban her from being on board the plane, which was flying non-stop across the country's airspace. "There is no logic or law behind this, none. But once again I say, what will happen next? I mean, they have to ask themselves that question. Well, apparently, in the heat of this Russophobia it is no longer about asking questions," she said.
"Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in North Macedonia’s capital of Skopje for an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting. His plane traveled through Greece even though the flight had initially been expected to pass through Bulgaria’s airspace. However, Sofia refused to open its airspace to the top Russian diplomat’s aircraft because Zakharova was onboard. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman slammed Bulgaria’s decision as "dangerous stupidity." According to her, for the first time in history, a government banned a person onboard a plane instead of the plane, because according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry’s statement, the aircraft had permission to cross the country’s airspace." https://tass.com/politics/1714401
Russia has also discovered that, despite having provided membes with sensational information of US bio- chemical warfare preparations, it is no longer wanted on the OPCW's 40 member directorate.
What a surprise!
As Randoph Bourne wrote more than a century ago "War is the health of the state". It's a dictum that applies in spades to alliances designed for war, always tending towards war, preparing and arming and training for war such as NATO.
And the last thing they need is informed criticism from representatives ofthestates that they have been planning to dismantle for their entire existence.
Meanwhile Lithuania is provoking Russians in Kalingrad while Finland hosts naval exercises within sight of St Petersburg. Both provocations are made to order from Washington- as is the genocide in Gaza.
Makes you wonder what NATO thinks it might do if Russia were to go beyond Ukraine as NATO is visibly no match for Russia militarily. Meanwhile, EU buys as much LNG as it can from Russia and refuses to cut the gas imported via Ukraine.
thanks very much karl.. it's an important discussion and lavrov is brilliant as always... it is a shame more people in the west are unable to read his sage words here... it can't be allowed as it would cast everything that is happening at present in a very different light...
Not just the West but globally. Sharing this material helps broaden the illumination it brings. This is electronic Samizdat as are most of my postings.
I'll second what James said.
You mentioned the meetings he had on the sidelines, and the question of what the responses were to his speech. I look forward to hearing about any tidbits you discover . . . it's hard to imagine that some members aren't having doubts about the current course.
At the MFA's website are a few PRs of the boilerplate sort dealing with some of those meetings. Often it's the who not the what; for example, he met with Armenia's Foreign Minister, which has a high status if you've been following the direction of recent Russian-Armenian relations. MFA's English site has some news, but it's always much less, which is why I view the Russian and translate its contents. https://mid.ru/en/
You do a really good thing in bringing us that translated info.
I still have the feeling, perhaps born of wishful thinking, that the occasional small cracks we see in the anti-Russian wall in Europe will widen and in time, perhaps, crack it wide open.
Viewed objectively, the risk/reward for many of these countries in reconciling with Russia, and through them achieving more fruitful relationships with much of the rest of the world, seems to me heavily slanted in favour of doing so. If I'm reading it right, that real-world, constant gravitational pull may eventually come to dominate.
Russia, China and other nations promote people-to-people relations because they go beyond the scope of state-to-state and help facilitate good open relations. The various international academic competitions Russia holds annually is part of the process. My efforts here are also part of that. It's taken many centuries for humanity to realize it's all together as one, but there are those who don't want to see unity and solidarity because that ruins their schemes for gaining or holding on to power. Multipolarity can be seen as multiple poles of togetherness unifying to promote peace and harmony. The historical trend is in that direction thankfully.
Yes, let's hope so, Karl.
Cooperative diversity, rooted in tolerance, seems the ideal to me.
"One of the key components of this policy was the reckless expansion of the bloc to the East, which began after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Although, as it seemed, the end of the bipolar confrontation deprived the North Atlantic Alliance of its raison d'être."
Great phrasing. The main reason for NATO is to feed the US Military Industrial Complex with weapons orders. Hence NATO will (a) always try to expand, independent of any external military threats (there never were any to begin with), and (b) will try to create instability wherever possible to justify (a). NATO is a Mafia-style organization and needs to be shut down. Maybe once the US loses its extraordinary privilege and the Dollars that it creates out of thin air are made worthless, NATO will thankfully disappear. Capitalism is ALL about profit, does not care about human well-being.
Quite correct about NATO. However, there's now the emergence of Social-Capitalism as seen in the Chinese and Russian examples of "Socialism" with their national characteristics. I aim to write about that concept in the near future.
"If treaties are destroyed, then humanity has backslided toward the barbarism it once sought to escape."
Yes, that seems to me the BIG picture. I've been chewing on it: as the Rule of Law is destroyed, what replaces it is the Rule of Man. Force and violence. Barbarism. It's not that hard to see: either there are laws and people agree to abide by them or not. We agree to enforce them amongst ourselves because we all benefit. If we decide we are better off stealing, then the whole system falls apart.
There's a post apocalyptic Peak Oil narrative, that this relates to EROEI; only way I can get more stuff is by taking it from someone else. And if I can't have it, well, I'll make sure no one else gets it. That's the psychopath response.
Dark ages ahead.
Yes, rejecting deviance while exposing and ostracizing deviants is what's happening here at the end of the Age of Plunder. The postulated Shared Future implies sharing must be a basic principle if humanity is to overcome the Fossil Fuel Age.
It's pretty much all been said . I particularly appreciated the use of the existing Ukrainian constitution as a truth club on the heads of the elitist dullards who seem to dominate the Waste, as DunGroanin refers to it. Also another word I never knew 'Samizdat', which is very appropriate now we know that most if not all of the negative propaganda used to characterise the USSR and now the Russian Federation was pure projection.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2417981/world