Alexander Nekrassov Writes Appealingly Dry Columns about the Varied Idiocies of Our Age — The Former Kremlin Adviser Is Worth a Read for those Bored by the American Media’s Blanket Ignorance

© 2014 Peter Free

 

20 November 2014

 

 

I like people with smarts — Stirring Trouble Internationally’s Alexander Nekrassov is one of those

 

Here is what he said about Australia’s recent G-20 doggish pony show:

 

 

What are G20 summits if not talking shops for world leaders who usually get together, at huge cost for taxpayers, and produce a bland joint statement that contains promises which are rarely met?

 

But the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, proved to be a different sort of occasion for both the scribblers and talking heads. It had suspense and rumours of stand-offs from the word go. 

 

The world was treated to a production called "West gives President Vladimir Putin a piece of its mind over Russia's role in Ukraine".

The climax of the summit came when it was reported that Putin would be leaving Brisbane earlier than others, supposedly "upset" by all that criticism levelled at him.

 

And it was then that reality of another G20 summit kicked in and the media had to deal with a rather boring document that lacked any serious meat on its bones.

 

Hardly value for money for the $800 million spent on this summit. Still, at least there was a bit of drama for a change.

 

© Alexander Nekrassov, Finally, a G20 summit worth writing about, Al Jazeera English (17 November 2014) (extracts)

 

You may detect cynical realism and a slight pro-Russian slant in the above words.

 

The combination provides an antidote to silly Western pronouncements about unremitting Russian evil.

 

 

Consider what Nekrassov wrote in May

 

About conflict in and over Ukraine:

 

 

[W]hen it comes to the bigger perspective, the endgame , Putin and his people suspect that the US plans to use the crisis in Ukraine to drive a wedge between Europe and Russia, with the aim to take over the European markets under a trading pact with the EU.

 

In order for it to start cutting down the debt, the US needs a vast market for its goods and services and the EU is currently the biggest one of them all. So the US endgame, as Moscow sees it, is to run Europe while freezing out Russia. And the response that Moscow sees to that? Do what the Yanks are doing: Drive Europe and the US apart.

 

Moscow has been quite good at it up to now. And that's what the new "cold war" is all about really. Russia battling with the US over Europe. And in this fight, regrettably, Ukraine is coming out as the biggest loser.

 

© 2014 Alexander Nekrassov, The view from Moscow: What's the US endgame in Ukraine?, Al Jazeera English (06 May 2014)

 

Insightful.

 

 

The moral? — With the self-dissolution of the Fourth Estate in the United States, journalism is about being a consistently reliable mouthpiece for our militaristic oligarchy

 

Not to say that Russian plutocrats and media are any better.

 

The point is that when we do not look closely at the truths underlying international conflict, as Nekrassov frequently does, we tend to kill and gravely harm large swaths of people, who certainly do not deserve it. Undisciplined greed is a social problem, whether yours or mine.

 

Realpolitik and balance among Great Powers have the benefit of letting hegemonic spheres of influence endure, so as to keep each side’s expanding avarice from inflicting death that serves no achievable purpose — other than, in this instance, to keep our Militaristic Death Machine running.