No Joe, I was referring to your relentlessly ignorant rewriting of history. OLO does not allow enough words to provide you with a history lesson, but can I suggest that you do some fact checking before you leap into print.

Russia did not invade Crimea. Crimea has been part of Russia for centuries, until Krushchev gave it away in 1954. After the US organised, financed and controlled coup d'etat in Ukraine in February 2014 Crimea held two referenda in which they voted overwhelmingly to rejoin the Russian Federation.

There are undoubtedly nazis everywhere but they did not come to prominence in Ukraine until after the coup. Now they are the dominant force. You really need to update yourself on what is happening with Donbass and the breaching of the Minsk accords. You will of course read nothing about that in the Oz media. Instead, Abbott goes off to join Poroshenko's "advisory" group.

Georgia is a more complex case, but again to describe it as a Russian "invasion" is simplistic and ignorant beyond reason.

If you want to discuss Russia in a sensible way, at least get a grasp of the basic facts.

Russia never invaded Crimea...
If people believe that crap then one would assume there really isn't any hope for them contributing anything useful on the subject at this point.
What a bloated sack of flatulence...

Armchair Critic

Of course, Russia invaded Crimea! Don't let the facts convince you otherwise. It'll invade everything if given the chance.

In terms of Western propaganda, it's essential to believe that everything Russia does is expansionist and a threat to ... something or other. If the message doesn't sink in, then the ghost of Chamberlain is always there to invoke.

Russia is nasty, horrible and evil. The Russian people are just slaves for us to liberate. Too bad if they end up like Iraq or Libya or Afghanistan or Syria or the giant torture chamber of Latin America in the 1970s or the destroyed and napalmed countries of SE Asia in the 1950s and 1960s. We in the West have only their interests at heart.

One day they'll thank us.

Hi James,

History lesson # 1: " Crimea has been part of Russia for centuries, until Krushchev gave it away in 1954."

No. The Tsarists invaded the Crimea and seized it from the Khanate in 1824. In 1954 Khrushchev handed it over to the Ukraine. So it belongs to the Ukraine. There was no legality whatsoever in Russia's occupation of it, in spite of the 99.9 % 'support' for Russian control organised under the Russians. End of.

History lesson # 2: Georgia is indeed a more complex case: Georgia has a long history of welcoming Ossetians into the country, and giving them land, going back to the days of the Mongol invasions of Ossetia to the north, and the Tsarist invasions three hundred years ago. Yes, indeed. Then Russia engineers a 'Polish-style' pretext and invades within hours of such a pretext in August 2008, to seize a third of the country. At least they weren't wearing Polish uniforms.

So where's next, James ? The Baltic states ? A bit more of Finland (do you want another history lesson about Finland ?) ?

Joe

Now that Malcolm is leading us, I feel much better. Tony was a phoney!

Hope you enjoyed Easter. It'll be your last!

Pilger is pilgerizing.