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Former Czech President Blasts "The West's Lies About Russia Are Monstrous"
Authored by Neil Clark, originally posted at The Spectator,
Václav Klaus has made a habit of saying things others shy away from saying, but it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm in the popularity stakes. Quite the opposite: the 73-year-old ardently Eurosceptic free-marketeer has legitimate claims to be regarded as the most successful ‘true blue’ conservative politician in Europe over the past 25 years. He was, after all, prime minister of the Czech Republic from 1992 to 1998 and then his country’s president for a further ten years, from 2003 to 2013.
So when we meet after a typically hearty Serbian lunch — at the International Science and Public Conference in Belgrade — I am keen to ask if he has any advice for David Cameron and the British Conservative party.
‘I was invited to a conference last year in Windsor which was called the Conservative Renewal Conference,’ he says. ‘I made a speech in which I asked the question: “Do you really need a renewal — or don’t you think it would be sufficient to have a return?” My speech stressed the need to return to standard conservative ideas and approaches. I am afraid the current leadership of the Conservative party are not exactly doing that.’
Klaus’s message clearly resonates more with activists than with the serial ‘modernisers’ at the top of the party. ‘After I had finished my speech, two or three older ladies came up to me and said, “It was like Maggie’s speech!” So I find the Conservative party now rather confused in its ideas. The party is playing with the green ideas in a way I can’t accept.’
Klaus is not too keen — to say the least — about another element of the ‘modernising’ agenda. ‘The same-sex marriages and all that stuff about family, to put it broadly, is for me another tragic misunderstanding by the current leaders of the party and I am very sorry about that.’
We move on, inevitably, to Europe. What effect does Klaus think a British referendum on EU membership — and the prospect of a UK withdrawal — might have for the Continent? ‘It would send a strong signal. I was very angry, even in the communist era, looking at Britain from the outside, from behind the Iron Curtain, that Britain decided to leave EFTA to join the EEC in the early 1970s.’
It was a Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath, who took that momentous step. What, I wonder, does Klaus think of the present Conservative leader’s line on Europe? ‘I have met Mr Cameron several times and I am not so sure about his credentials on the EU. I understand he must somehow reflect the division in the whole country and in his party, but nevertheless I don’t think that in a secret ballot in a referendum that he would vote yes [for Britain to remain in the EU] — but this is only my guesstimate.’
Listen to Klaus in full flow on the absurdities of the EU and it’s hard to think why any sane individual — on left or right — would want their country to stay in it. ‘A few days ago I studied the names of the EU commissioners under Mr Juncker, and their portfolios. We in my country say that 16 is already too high for having meaningful portfolios. But the EU now has 28, more than in any country in our part of the world. If you look at the names of those portfolios, I really don’t believe my eyes. The former Estonian prime minister is a commissioner for digital markets. As an economist I really don’t know what the term “digital markets” means. Plus there is another, a German politician, Günther Oettinger, who is the commissioner for “digital economy and society”. We would laugh in the communist era to have such names for the members of our cabinet. I can’t imagine what these commissioners are doing.’
I put it to Klaus that in the bloated and bureaucratic EU economic model, we have the worst of all worlds — one which pleases neither genuine socialists, nor Thatcherite free-marketers, and he readily agrees. ‘What we have in Europe now is not the German Soziale Marktwirtschaft — the social market economy — but the German model deteriorated by another adjective, “ecological”.’
‘I started my political career after the fall of communism with a well-known slogan: “I want to introduce markets without adjectives.” There was a big fight in the country about this phrase. They said, “Klaus wants to introduce markets without social policy.” “No,” I said. “There can be a social policy, but the slogan means a market economy with an additional social policy and not a social market.”The sequence of the words is all important. At present we are going deeper and deeper and deeper into the ecological and social market economy.’
Whatever we decide to call the current system, he adds, it clearly isn’t working for Europe. ‘I am really shocked to see leading EU and European politicians pretending that everything is OK, which is ridiculous and funny,’ Klaus says. ‘I recently read an article by a well-known German economist, Professor Sinn, who has studied the situation in Italy. He presented statistical data which showed that GDP in Italy has declined by 9 per cent since 2000. It’s unimaginable! I don’t think communist Czechoslovakia would have survived such a long-term decline. At the same time, industrial output declined in the same period by 25 per cent! One quarter of the economy simply disappeared.’
Klaus believes the EU is beyond reform and has called for it to be replaced with an ‘Organisation of European States’ — a simple free trade association which would not pursue political integration. He recalls his own experience at the forefront of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989. ‘When we started to change my country we quite deliberately did not use the term “reform” — we used the word “transformation”, because we wanted a systemic change. Such a systemic change is needed in Europe today.’
It’s not just on the economy that Europe has got it wrong, says Klaus. He doesn’t agree with the western elite’s current hostility towards Russia, which he believes is based on a false and outdated view of the country. ‘I remember one person in our country who at one moment was minister of foreign affairs, telling me that he hated communism so much that he was not even able to read Dostoevsky. I have remembered that statement for decades and I am afraid that the current propaganda against Russia is based on a similar argument and way of thinking. I spent most of my life in a communist Czechoslovakia under Soviet domination. But I differentiate between the Soviet Union and Russia. Those who are not able to understand the difference are simply not looking with open eyes. I always argue with my American and British friends that although the political system in Russia is different from the system in our countries and we wouldn’t be happy to live in such a system, to compare the current Russia with Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union is stupid.’
He says, with finality: ‘The US/EU propaganda against Russia is really ridiculous and I can’t accept it.’
Klaus wants to transfer other democratic decision-making powers back to the nation states. ‘I’m not just criticising the EU arrangements — at the same time I’m very critical of global governance and the shift to transnationalism. A week ago I was in Hong Kong and I criticised the naive opening up of countries without keeping or maintaining the anchoring of the nation state. Doing this leads either to anarchy, or to global governance. My vision for Europe is a Europe of sovereign nation states, definitely. But we have already gone well beyond simply economic integration. The EU is a post-democratic and post-political system.’
Klaus has spent his political career standing up for sovereignty and rejecting the dominant orthodoxies of the day. Unlike other leaders in the former Soviet bloc countries, he did not feel inhibited about criticising western policies when the Berlin Wall came down. He was one of the few to oppose the Clinton/Blair ‘humanitarian’ bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 (he was also strongly critical of the Iraq war).
Yet he feels the freedom to hold — and express — ‘unfashionable’ views in the West is now under increasing threat.
‘If you ask me whether I think liberty is under huge attack in Europe now, I would say yes. I feel repressed by not being allowed to express my views. I have permanent troubles with this. Suddenly I have discovered, for the first time in 20 years, having been invited to be a keynote speaker at a conference, that the organisers find out I have reservations about the EU, about same-sex marriages, about the Ukraine crisis, and they say, “We are very sorry, we have already found a different keynote speaker, thank you very much.” This is something I had experienced in the communist era but not in so-called free Europe. Only a very narrow range of opinions is now considered politically correct.’
It’s to fight this worrying trend that Klaus has decided to launch a new project. ‘I am planning, if we can get the money and people together, to start a new quarterly journal in 2015 called Europe and Liberty.’
It’s hard not to wish him well. In the not too distant past, Europe did have leaders who had clear and distinct visions: on the left, the likes of Sweden’s Olof Palme and Austria’s Bruno Kreisky; on the right, de Gaulle and Margaret Thatcher. You could agree or disagree but you could never say you didn’t know what they believed in, or that the views they held were not sincere. But they’ve been replaced by a generation of bland, uninspiring, consistently ‘on-message’ politicians.
Václav Klaus is different, a throwback to the days when our leaders did stand for something and weren’t afraid to speak their minds. Let’s hope he does not turn out to be Europe’s last conviction politician.
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You tell em Vaclav. As if they may listen. lol
Klaus was smart enough not to include Czechs into the EU bullshit currency and was one of very few to disagree with the global warming propaganda.
YYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
Finally a man who makes sense. I don't know what baggage he may be carrying around, but based on what is said in this article alone - he is a representative of what we need desperately in Europe to avoid a continent of wrecked souls, because everyone has gone insane from lack of respect for individual culture and quirks.
There is NO reason why Europeans cannot trade, work, play, study and dance together in the context of individual nation states - but this current centralized mayhem of all-fits-one is collective spritual and cultural suicide.
Mr. Klaus - are there any vacancies on your new project? I would like to report for dilligent duty - toute suite.
Slowly, but surely, the grip of the Mainstream USSA whore media is losing control over the mass minds of the sheeple. The USSA anti Russia narrative, from beginning to end was a big lie, one that could only be maintained by a total monopoly over media. The elitists are trying to push us into another war, and so far have failed. Unfortunately, most Ukies are brainwashed idiots and have complied with the western agenda, and so deserve to have their economy and freedom destroyed.
The good news for the Ukies is their misery won't last. The Kiev Junt is good at lying, stealing and genocide, but totally incompetent in economic management, and even worse fighting wars, losing badly to the novorossiyans despite vastly superior resources and help from blackwater and CIA operatives. They are an abject embarrassment to their western handlers'
"The West lies..."
Well, where's the news here as it is already known by everybody who still has some brains left.
The Ron Paul of Eastern Europe. Mr. Klaus is a real leader who cares about his people and the people of Europe. He is not some bought off stooge criminal.
Wrong Freddie.
He just prefers his own particular brand of theft.
Happily reminiscing about what a great leader he was and how much he was (is) loved.
He is a piece of shit just like the rest of them.
My wife is Czech. We have a house in Prague and live there several months of the yesr.
This prick Klaus sold-off all the public assets to his communist cronies for pocket change when he was PM then when he was ousted by the people, all his now-oligarch cronies then voted him in as president.
He's a communist thief. He simply prefers his brand of theft.
Look up 'klaus stealing pen' on youtube to see him in action.
All he cares about is lining his and his mates' pockets...just like every other piece of shit, politician. Corruption is a way of life.
Ooh yeah...and he's a closet cock-sucker.
And do you really think putting an even larger number of cronies into to an even larger monstrously bureaucratic and untransparent playpen that also has a policy of selling off public assets is a better solution??
The mere existence of countless committees and councils on all sorts of subjects that for some parts are absolutely none of their business to meddle in - inside a big black box - is pretty much a guarantor for cultivating an organism of camaraderie and appeasement of political friends rather than ensuring enforcement of accountability and transparency in public governance.
Since the opponents are clearly worshipping a deity of world domination - because it is clearly not enough to just go about one's own business in peace these days - the only entity that has a chance of mounting a reasonable defence on behalf of its combined populace against these characters is the sovereign nation state, even if that has its problems as well.
Cronyism and corruption exists on all levels of governance. If we want to limit it - complete public transparency for public entities is the only way forward in my opinion. Any directly or in-directly tax-funded activity should be fully and publicly accounted for down to the individual transaction and counterparty. In this day and age that is no longer a technical issue, as all official accounting is done in accounting systems anyway. Statistics are fine, but the raw unmanipulated, un-interpreted data should always be made available to the public in full. I accept that a VERY narrow part of the public budget could be reported on a less detailed level, when it involves activities in the interest of national security, but only in a very narrow interpretation of what activities can be included. Those activities ahould then instead be subject to bi-partisan oversight by elected representatives under oath of loyalty instead. I think that making raw accounting data and detailed public budgets available to the public would be a huge step forward in making life a lot harder for the corruptors.
If we want real democracy - the people must be in charge of the money. To be in charge of the money - we have to be the ultimate auditors. It really is that simple in my humble opinion.
As for your last little jap below the belt - I don't give a damn about people's sexual desires as long as they stay the hell away from children and exploitation of non-consenting adults. Sexuality as well as religion belong in the private sphere.
Well said. Amen.
"...putting an even larger number of cronies into to an even larger monstrously bureaucratic and untransparent playpen that also has a policy of selling off public assets is a better solution??"
And when did i assert that?
And i don't see how any of the rest of your (very legitimate) rant is contradictory to what i've said...except for the part about sucking cock...
you cock-sucker.
And as for religion, looking at your pathetically patronising preaching, it's no surprise you believe the nonsense and fairly tales of religion.
Cock sucker.
Thanks for the down vote cock sucker.
I'm glad I had that effect on you...
link please, Dame Edna,
Did you and your wife get married before or after same sex marriages were legal in Prague? Who straps on the joy stick or do you take turns.
I have so many questions.
Fire away then Einstein.
Klaus is a conservative ass wipe.
And when he says "people are saying russia is the soviet union ",
he's a conservative liar.
I have never, ever heard that spoken on any critical political analysis by experts,
like former ambassadors of russia et al...and I watch politics 7 days a week.
....so Klaus is essentially presenting a false argument to attack a false argument.
And that's why he is a Conservative Ass Wipe.
Look what the cat dragged in.
Ken Mehlman
You know what they say at zerohedge, Ken?
"It takes an ass wipe to know an ass wipe."
Ken is just jealous that Putin beat Nudelman and Obama at their own game. Russia keeps the jewel of Crimea, denies them control over the resource rich Donbass, while leaving them with an useless fascist rump state. Biden's baby puke Hunter will have to find another country to frack.
Moved
I'll wait for a link from you, hon.
But it sounds like he would have made a terriffic American politican.
I wonder if he could hold a candle to Duke Cunningham, the flying ace and member of congress from San Diego.
Waddya think?
And what about the fecal material that just gets smeared around by the ass wipe being used incorrectly?
ou MUST NOT have been listening/wathcing USA news. They deliberatly misspronounce Russia and have several tiems said "Soviet Uni..." then corrected themseves and said "Russia". I have heard them with my own ears make that "mistake" several times.
Time to vote you down.
Looks like someone's collective ass is bent out if shape here.
It's raining red (for Ken) ! Hallelujah !
It's raining red ! Amen !
You just got out to post and let yourself
Get absolutely soaking wet...
Just another cocksucking CIA troll with his tongue shoved up the fucking Kenyan faggot monkeys chocolate subway.
Did you get hard writing that? Denial is not just a river in egypt, how often do you think about gay sex with obama? are you top or bottom when you imagine it?
You are insane. That is what the US media is putting out there everyday. They absolutely say Russia = USSR. You're either delusional or a straight up troll.
Either delusional, a straight up troll or an ideologue.
ideologue
[ahy-dee-uh-lawg, -log, id-ee-, ahy-dee-]
noun
1.
a person who zealously advocates an ideology.
Look up zealous. All these online sources, like Google and Webster say the word zealous is derived from mideval latin, when everyone knows the real source is The Zelots.
Why would that be?
"The West's lies about Russia are monstrous!"
You mean like Vlad saying that the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century was the breakup of the Soviet Union?
That lie? :-)
I knew this troll would pop up before I even clicked on this article.
those intelligent read all he said and understand what he meant in the whole
dishonest jerks can't let themselves be smart enough nor go to the effort
media dumb you down much?
Edit: Read. very good. Sounds like a man of conscience. Klaus with a bullet.
Ya ... but every hegemonic global super-power who's GDP is comprised of military spending to the tune of 20% of total GDP per annum needs a big bad boogeyman to point the finger at and so they can raise hundreds of billion per year from taxpayers for new military spending.
Russia spend 20%, usa is near 40%
the US and EU just want a war...
before they collapse under the weight their own debt...
Vladimir Putin doesn't get mad, he gets even.
He steals countries and companies.
I would not put it that way.....it's more like Putin Administration gets things done....
15 Years of Putin Rule in one Infograph
http://ozziesaffa.blogspot.com/2014/06/15-years-of-putin-rule-in-one-inf...
ok, this is of import.
"Václav Klaus is different, a throwback to the days when our leaders did stand for something and weren’t afraid to speak their minds. Let’s hope he does not turn out to be Europe’s last conviction politician."
That's quite a quote.
Now which politician was the last in this old USSA to say what they meant? Possibly Wellstone but he was killed before he coukd say or do much. Its been a long time since Ive seen one that survived. Maybe HHH back in the 70's. (humphrey). Otherwise I got nothin.
And yes I like this Vaclav Klaus fellow and I hope he gets enough support to withstand the murderous bastards who would oppose him. And you can bet thats Cameron and Obomber with a lot more so called heads of state who are simply puppets of bankers.
‘The same-sex marriages and all that stuff about family, to put it broadly, is for me another tragic misunderstanding by the current leaders of the party and I am very sorry about that.’
He sounds like an eastern-eurpeon version of RP only more outspoken about personal beliefs.
He knows the record of the ethno-Bolsheviks and what they did in Russia and the Eastern Europe before, and what they are attempting again.
Quote:There was a big fight in the country about this phrase. They said, “Klaus wants to introduce markets without social policy.” “No,” I said. “There can be a social policy, but the slogan means a market economy with an additional social policy and not a social market.”
"Václav Klaus has made a habit of saying things others shy away from saying, but it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm in the popularity stakes. Quite the opposite: the 73-year-old ardently Eurosceptic free-marketeer has legitimate claims to be regarded as the most successful ‘true blue’ conservative politician in Europe over the past 25 years."
All true. He is surely a free thinker. Most uncommon in politics yet alone Europe.
Must.. have.. government...
Apparently he's not free to think outside of that box.
Vaclac Klaus is free to think outside of that box. he is free to talk outside of that box. it's just that he does not get invited to speeches and gatherings because of his lack of Political Correctness, which I think is a completely different thing
what I never understood about him is that he is a full-blast free-marketeer which at the same time is a strong proponent of nation-state sovereignty
and we have quite a few of them, particularly in the Eastern countries previously under communism
how does he reconcile those two positions? the German/EU Model, which he blasts for being too social and too green is a reconciliation of free-market inside the EU and a common oversight over markets... based to the powers of nation-state sovereignty and trying to protect all interests. a compromise, with all the attached problems of compromises
completely full-blast free markets are the cause of transnationalism, aka globalization. he embraces globalization, but thinks that the small nation state should be strenghtened, meanwhile it's globalization that pulls the teeths out of the (particularly if small) nation state, making the transnational company the master and the nation state the servant
just have a look at the treaties that Transnational Big Biz proposes (see TTIP): "when we invest in your country your courts are not going to be judging us, and if you change a law and we object, we have the power to find an arbitration court that grants us damages". think it through: a sovereign country changes it's laws, and is then liable for damages, judged by an external arbitration panel?
this is not strenghtening sovereignty, this is selling sovereignty, and it's not even the highest bidder, it's the lowest
I mean he has a lot of points against the EU, with several missing here. but he has no acceptable alternative whatsoever. the full-blast liberal one of just opening all borders and relaxing all common standards and regulations is not acceptable to a continent full of socialists and greens and conservatives (to which he can be only counted because of his opposition to homosexuals)
continental conservatives do not want a full liberalization of food production and military expenditures, for example. they agree with the greens on GMO bans/regulations, and fear a world dominated by Big Agro-Biz, which is already poisoning parts of the globe. and even continental liberals do not want external monopolies like Microsoft, Google and Gazprom to enter the common market and impose their terms without opposition. and continental socialists join them in stating that banking is a state-granted special privilege that has to be regulated, instead of this "whatever goes" madness we are witnessing
and for all this, you need to have a certain size, be it through a common set of treaties or a semi/proto-confederation. which, to take a current example based on the Tusk's proposal, tells Gazprom that if they don't stop being a monopoly, then it will face a common buyer able to bargain toe-to-toe with that giant, and flanking that manouver with new regulations that state you can't own pipelines and be either a consumer and producer at the same time, ensuring "pipeline market neutrality", a form of anti-trust, the bane of full-blast-free-marketeers and oligarchic Robber Barons exploiting their size for monopolistic and oligopolistic robberies
because face it: full-free-marketeers have no answer to global transnational monopolies and oligopolies, except "laissez faire". their product is... oligarchs
which of course are also the main sponsors of many full-blast-free-markeers
so I question what he means when he talks about sovereignty. except that he'd like to bash a bit the homos. though there he is vague. does he want to go back to chemical castrations? I doubt it, but that was common in the 50's, just look up how Turing was driven to suicide. there is a difference between pampering homosexuals and their lifestyle and persecuting them
his criticism is very good. I agree with him about the lies on Russia. yet his proposed set of policies... are simply unacceptable, except for the City of London and the global set of oligarchs
The Nobel Prize Winner wants a war with Russia:
Today, on the other hand, the CIA is directing an incendiary propaganda campaign against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, a campaign that seems intent on provoking a direct military confrontation with the country with the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world. There is no question that the CIA is mobilizing all the resources and assets it commands—within governments, the media, and among academics—in a carefully orchestrated campaign aimed at polluting public opinion with anti-Russian hysteria.
Since the beginning of the week, the three most influential mass circulation newsmagazines of the United States, Britain, and Germany—Time, The Economist, and Der Spiegel—have published cover stories that combine wild accusations against Vladimir Putin with demands for a showdown with Russia.
The most striking and obvious characteristic of these cover stories is that they are virtually identical. The CIA has scripted them all. The stories employ the same insults and the same fabrications. They denounce Putin’s “web of lies.” The Russian president is portrayed as a “depraved” mass murderer.
What is the Russian president to make of the use of this sort of language in the most influential newsmagazines? He is on the receiving end of the same campaign of vilification that was previously directed against Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Putin certainly knows the outcome of these propaganda campaigns. Serbia was bombed into political submission and Milosevic was carted off to The Hague, where he died, mysteriously, in prison. Iraq was invaded and Hussein executed. Libya was also invaded, and Gaddafi—much to the amusement of Hillary Clinton—was savagely tortured and lynched. As for Assad, the United States has directed a bloody insurgency that has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Syrians.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/30/pers-j30.html
Yeh, the "prize winner" all right. He sure is a war monger, but what the hell did people think they were getting when they didn't lynch the bastard the moment he and pelosi stated that no trials or war crimes investigations would be held for bush and cheny. It was obvious at that point in time that his peace prize administration would be all about continuing the same shit the previous criminals perpetrated. Hope and change alrighty. He's a real prize. lol
The EU and USA are intent on digging a grave for Russia but are in danger of falling in it themselves.
Either the west is foolish enough to believe that it can beat Russia or it s provoking a total meltdown to over up its financial unsustainability.
In the meantime the arms anufacturers are booming.
All of those.
What difference does it make when the press is obviously biased? Answer: It creates wars and it helps slaughter innocent people by the hundreds of thousands and it rots your country to the core.
Time, The Economist and Der Spiegel represent the few dozen men who control America and the world’s mass news media. There is no greater power in the world than that wielded by those who manipulate public opinion, reaching into virtually every home, shaping the public’s image of the world.
The research staff of National Vanguard Books in “Who Rules America?” wrote: “It is not just the heavy-handed suppression of certain news stories from our newspapers or the blatant propagandizing of history-distorting TV ‘docudramas’ which characterizes the opinion-manipulating techniques of the media masters. They exercise both subtlety and thoroughness in their management of both the news and the entertainment which they present to us…
“And who are all these powerful masters of the media? To a very large extent they are Jews.”
Perhaps that explains the incredible bias in America’s foreign policy and the positions of the Congress, such as with its unquestioned support for the state of Israel and its unquestioned hatred of the Eastern Ukraine separatists and Russia’s Christian leader, Vladimir Putin.
“And as it is with TV entertainment, so it is with the news, whether televised or printed. The insidious things about this form of thought control is that even when we realize that entertainment or news is biased, the media masters still are able to manipulate most of us. This is because they not only slant what they present, but they establish tacit boundaries and ground rules for the permissible spectrum of opinion.
“As an example, consider the media treatment of Middle East news. Some editors or commentators are slavishly pro-Israel in every utterance, while others seem nearly neutral. No one, however, dares suggest that the U.S. government is backing the wrong side of the Arab-Jewish conflict and that it served Jewish interests rather than American interests to send U.S. forces to cripple Iraq, Israel’s principal rival in the Middle East. Thus, a spectrum of permissible opinion, from pro-Israel to nearly neutral, is established.”
A major factor in this concentration of the media in a few Jewish hands to a large degree is made possible by the fact that newspapers are not supported by their subscribers but by their advertisers – primarily as a result of selective advertising policies by Jewish merchants and Jewish-controlled advertising agencies. Thus, the accompanying steady decline in the 20th and 21st centuries in the number of competing Gentile newspapers and magazines.
.... But this time it's different... Right?
The Nobel Prize Winner wants a war with Russia:
I don't think the Nobel Prize winner cares much one way or the other. He just want to go back to the golf course.
But the infestation of neocons at high levels - THEY could instigate, if only through sheer stupidity.
The situation is becoming quite dangerous. And rival factions in Defense and CIA surely must sense this.
Which means that anything is now possible.
As the Republicans would rather see Obama stew in his own shit than press for a much needed impeachment, the options are reduced to one.
'At present we are going deeper and deeper and deeper into the ecological and social market economy.’ yup
What is an ecological economy? Does that include pricing in resouce depliction, clean air, public health and climate change into free market economics?
I also think socialism would be an improvment on the fascism we have on offer.
Any relation to a Mr. S Klaus, and did he make his money in a toy factory?
Very suspicious.
Klaus wants to transfer other democratic decision-making powers back to the nation states. ‘I’m not just criticising the EU arrangements — at the same time I’m very critical of global governance and the shift to transnationalism." States rights versus federal mandates remains a cornerstone of our liberties.
Meh. Every EU country has their own Klaus or two. Perhaps his views are new and spectacular to ZH readers but they are debated in every national election in Europe and so far have failed to gain necessary traction to create change.
OK. Good to hear. Over on this side of the pond we're not always so privy to honest discourse in our national debates.
Really? Name a few please...
Jesus H Christ!
It's about fucking time!!!
Refreshing notions from an obviously intelligent man. Makes me proud that my husband, a second generation Amerikan, is Czech and Slovak. We still don't know how grandma and grandpa got together; the Czechs and the Slovaks have traditionally not got along with each other.
They got 'together' because they had the hots for each other. It's called an attraction, and has consequences. ;)
They get traditionaly the best way with each other. You are a troll a full moron.
You know your comment is incomprehensible , right? Probably not.
stooge
Klaus is a conservative ass wipe.
And when he says "people are saying russia is the soviet union ", he's a conservative liar.
I have never, ever heard that spoken on any critical political analysis by experts,
like former ambassadors of russia et al...and I watch politics 7 days a week.
....so Klaus is essentially presenting a false arguement to attack a false argument.
And that's why he is a Conservatvie Ass Wipe.
Republi-Kunt
Wait a minute!
Klaus did not say "people are saying russia is the soviet union."
....so Republi-Ken is essentially presenting a false arguement to attack a false argument.
Did you hear him say this in English or Czech?
Or maybe you read it in the WSJ?
""people are saying russia is the soviet union "
Maybe he said "Russia wants to reestablish the Soviet Union" and it got lost in the translation.
I heard assholes like you say that a million times.
Say, why don't you get lost in the translation, Mehlman?
Ken doll, did you wipe the neocon jizz off your lips before you type?
Naw, he douched his ass, first.
Calm down with the bold. Your words certainly do not merit it.
Breath of fresh air - that chokes Obama et al.
It's not ridiculous, it's PsyOp's, False Narratives & Propaganda bought to the you via the Pure Evil Criminal Psychopaths at the CIA / State Dept.
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if the Czech Republic was the global hedgemon instead of the USA...
Beer and culture! Bitchez!
The Czechs are still the "Golden Hands of Europe".
The Cult of Putin.
Yes, but that doesn't mean he is wrong.
KLAUS - is one of the leading europian singers in Putin's chorus.
Wasn't it Klaus, who said the most most disturbing thing about Obama being elected was not Obama himself ....but that such a large percentage of Americans was now capable now electing such a a man like Obama...
this graph nicely ilustrates, that this man speaks one thing and does another
budged deficits of czech republic for past 20y
http://www.institutvk.cz/sites/default/files/uploaded/AK%25203%2520-%252...
Klaus was the one who said all the Climate Change hysteria was green Fascism.
link please
Czech President Calls Man-Made Global Warming a Myth
Noel Sheppard
News Busters
Monday, February 12, 2007
...In an interview with "Hospodárské noviny," a Czech economics daily, [Vaclav] Klaus made the following observations (emphasis mine throughout):
Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment.
...Klaus marvelously continued:
Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses. This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.
The interviewer asked: “How do you explain that there is no other comparably senior statesman in Europe who would advocate this viewpoint? No one else has such strong opinions...”
Klaus answered: “My opinions about this issue simply are strong. Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.”
Another interesting question: "Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?"
Klaus’s marvelous answer:
Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't. I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa.• It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected imcomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago…
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/120207_b_Man-Made.htm
In the American media one can find all manner of stories - positive and negative - about President Obama and the policies he supports.
Why is it that only positive stories can be found in state-controlled Russian media about Vladimir Putin and his policies?
Hmmm....
Answer - your a D-Bag???
Here’s the problem. The press against Putin is trying to find out about his money, his fortune, what he’s doing under cover, his background, his religion, his social life… but there’s no mainstream media criticism like this of Obama at all – not even a hard question. And the man doesn’t even have a birth certificate.
Besides, Putin is in charge of Russia. Obama isn’t in the U.S. He’s just a floating discussion point.
As for who controls the media in Russia, take a look at the Russian oligarchs, and how far Pussy Riot got before the group finally was stopped:
Never mind that the group is now a cause célèbre for their blasphemy on the US East Coast and that Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account sent out a photo of her with two of the women in April. “Great to meet the strong & brave women from #Pussy Riot,” the former U.S. secretary of state and first lady tweeted.
And for what? Dan Mihalopoulos of The Chicago Sun Times writes:
“Pussy Riot’s “Punk Prayer” was recorded when they stormed the altar of a Moscow cathedral in 2012. It’s more blasphemy than political demonstration.
“Dressed in balaclavas that hid their faces, the members of Pussy Riot kneeled down and crossed themselves in the Orthodox Christian manner. Others jumped around and played air guitars, as if the front of the church were a concert stage.
“The music that accompanies the video alternates punk-style shouting with the calm intonation of an Orthodox chant.
“’Sh*t! Sh*t! The Lord’s sh*t!’ the women sang. ‘Virgin Mary, Mother of God, send Putin away.’”
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/pussy-riots-conduct-sacrilege-some-democratic-ideals/tue-05202014-529pm
Pussy Riot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk rock protest group based in Moscow. Founded in August 2011, it has a variable membership of approximately 11 women[1] ranging in age from about 20 to 33.[2] They stage unauthorised provocative guerrilla performances in unusual public locations, which are edited into music videos and posted on the Internet.[3] Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they regard as a dictator,[2] and links between Putin and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.[4]
On February 21, 2012, five members of the group staged a performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior.[5] Their actions were stopped by church security officials. By that evening, they had turned the performance into a music video entitled "Punk Prayer - Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!"[6] The women said their protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leader's support for Putin during his election campaign….
The trial and sentence attracted considerable criticism,[13] particularly in the West. The case was adopted by human rights groups including Amnesty International, which designated the women prisoners of conscience,[14] and by a number of prominent entertainers.[15] Public opinion in Russia was generally less sympathetic towards the women…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pag
Bob, you say 'here's the problem' and then proceed to ignore it completely.
As I said, the Russian media (see Russia Today, e.g.) is constitutionally incapable of printing a truly negative word about Vladimir Putin. I can find an essentially unlimited number of negative stories from every angle imaginable about Obama in today's American print, online and televised media.
You, meanwhile, can find nothing truly critical of Vlad in the new Soviet Union's state-controlled media.
See the difference (you silly goose)?
It is my understanding that Moscow alone publishes more newspapers then any European country and much of it is anti-Putin.
For instance, The Moscow Times, the only English-language daily published in Russia, was established as Independent Media in March 1992 by a group of Dutch investors headed by Derk Sauer.
According to its web site: “SIM is now the largest player in the Russian media market, with a portfolio that includes more than 50 publications and projects with a cumulative readership about 12 million and about 25 percent share of the glossy advertising market.
“Since 2005, SIM has been a part of Sanoma, a leading European media holding company based in Helsinki that includes subsidiary companies specializing in the publication and distribution of periodicals.” Older issues can be found on The Moscow Times' web site, www.themoscowtimes.com.
For those who, like you Amerikan Patriot, believe that there is a media monopolization in Russia controlled by the State, the following may help with their research.
Vladimir Gusinsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (born 6 October 1952) is a Russian media tycoon. He is known as the founder of the Media-Most holding company that included Most Bank, the NTV[1] channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.
Life and career
Gusinsky was born in Moscow.
Alexander Korzhakov, former Chief of the Russian President's security service, told journalists that Boris Berezovsky had tried to talk him into assassinating Vladimir Gusinsky, the long-time Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, singer and Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon, and others (Novy Vzglyad newspaper, 19 October 1996).[2][3]
On 13 June 2000, Gusinsky was arrested on charges of stealing property worth more than $10 million from the state-owned "Russian Video" company, but three days later was released on bail. The case was halted and Gusinsky flew to Spain. On 17 September 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office filed another case alleging the embezzlement of $300 million from OAO Gazprom. On 17 November 2000 prosecutors reopened the first criminal case against Gusinsky. An international arrest warrant was issued through Interpol, and on 12 December 2000 Gusinsky was arrested in Spain.
According to the Spanish daily El País, Gusinsky told the four Spanish policemen who came to arrest him at his home in the luxury Atlantic resort of Sotogrande: "You are making a big mistake. You don't know who I am, I'm a friend of Bill Clinton's."[4] On 22 December Gusinsky was again released, after bail of 1 billion pesetas ($5.5 million) was lodged.
His defence team including lawyer Pavel Astakhov claimed that the charges were politically motivated, and on 24 April 2001 the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon declined to extradite Gusinsky to Russia. Later, Gusinsky was stripped of his Russian citizenship.
After moving abroad in 2001 Gusinsky created the satellite TV broadcasting company RTVi, which portrays events in Russia as presented by the TV network Echo's journalists. The related web site newsru.com carries textual, photographic, and video news from Russia.
On 23 August 2003, Gusinsky travelled from Israel to Athens, where he was arrested under a Greek-Russian treaty for fraud amounting to millions in damages.[5] Intense pressure from American leaders (mainly from US ambassador in Athens Tomas Miller), Israeli officials and the European Jewish Congress on the Greek government led to Gusinsky's release within five days.[6]
In May 2004 the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the actions taken against Gusinski by the Russian government were in breach of Sections 5 and 18 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.[7]
According to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews,[8] Gusinsky was a very close friend of US Congressman Tom Lantos.
He holds dual Israeli and Spanish citizenship and often resides in Spain.
Gusinsky had a shareholding in Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team for a period of three and a half years, acquiring 60% of the team in November 2000.
Gusinsky created NTV, the first independent TV channel in Russia. The emergence of 'NTV+', an offshoot from NTV channel, was a groundbreaking event for Russian media. NTV+ was the first satellite channel ever to broadcast in the former USSR. Gusinsky now owns the RTVi television channel and significant amount of other media assets in United States and Russia, including movie production companies, Internet portal com, radio and television stations.
Until November 2008, Gusinsky held 27% of the shares in the prominent Israeli newspaper Maariv, which he exchanged with Bank Hapolaim to settle a $28 million debt to the bank.[9]
Gusinsky and fellow Russian businessmen Konstantin Kagalovsky[10] launched on 17 March 2008 a Ukrainian TV station TVi.[11] They split due to a business dispute and Kagalovsky controls and continues to fund TVi on his own.[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Gusinsky
You've once again dodged the question. Dig, Bob, dig! Google furiously - do whatever it takes - but give me a Russia Today article that truly condemns Putin in any meaningful fashion.
The proof's in the pudding, Bob. Make me some pudding!
That's because your internet service only delivers Pravda.ru
Where do Zero Hedgers go to sign up to be a part of Putin's reconstituted Soviet Union?
In your Calvin Klein sports briefs underware drawer.
There might be a short wait to get in.
Bob, did I rub you the wrong way (you silly goose)? :-)
No, but you could have put more oomph into it
You must be one of Cass Sunsteins boys. Or maybe stopped by from the usual gig at media matters or mojo.
you will find your time spent here unrewarding. no sheep.
Lou - Stop feeding the trolls dude. They trive on attention!
Unless you just want to f*** with their heads, then be my guest!
Under the legislation, which passed the lower house with support from the main opposition Labor Party, anyone disclosing information about "special intelligence operations" could face a decade in prison. REUTERS
It also outlaws copying, transcribing, retaining, or recording intelligence materials, which critics say is a direct response to former damaging leaks by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and vastly expands the government's power to monitor computers.
'Free speech clampdown': New Australian law sees journalists facing 10yrs in prison. RT
Here’s a sample of the kind of fare that passes for news in Russia.
Excerpted from today's Wall Street Journal:
Russian state news outlets have begun airing reports casting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as a U.S.-organized plot, echoing previous Russian coverage of similar demonstrations that have cropped up far closer to home.
The coverage reflected the Kremlin's contention that pro-democracy protests in Moscow and Kiev in recent years amounted to Western schemes designed to undermine the Russian government, as opposed to bona fide outpourings of popular discontent.
On Monday, when the demonstrations in Hong Kong dominated headlines around the world, Russia's main news broadcast on the state-controlled First Channel skipped the story. State-controlled NTV aired a brief report on the protests and little more. But by Tuesday, state-controlled channels—the primary source of news for the vast majority of Russians—were presenting the Hong Kong protesters as agents of a U.S.-organized revolt just like their counterparts in Kiev.
"According to the Chinese press, the leaders of the movement received special training from the American intelligence services," the anchor on state-owned Rossiya 24 said during a segment on the Hong Kong protests.
Later in the day, the anchor on state-controlled First Channel introduced the report from Hong Kong by suggesting the U.S. was behind the protests. "Beijing has said the protest organizers are linked to the American State Department," the anchor said. The Chinese government, however, hasn't explicitly made such an accusation.
Antigovernment protests erupted in Moscow in late 2011 in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections, marking the biggest-ever public threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin's nearly decade-and-a-half rule. At the time, Mr. Putin blamed the U.S. for the unrest, specifically singling out the State Department and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "They shake us up so we don't forget who is boss on our planet," Mr. Putin said, referring to the U.S.
In reports Tuesday, both First Channel and Rossiya 24 showed a video appeal by a young female protester in Hong Kong and compared it with a similar clip filmed by a young female protester in Kiev. The reports characterized the two clips as identical and suggested they were the handiwork of the U.S. The reportage also raised doubts about the ability of rank-and-file Hong Kong students to organize such a mass demonstration.
"The protesters are mostly of the smartphone generation—college, even high-school students," a correspondent for Rossiya 24 said. "But it's unlikely they learned on their own, at their desks, how to turn on their mobile-phone screens simultaneously for an effective image. It's unlikely that people of school age came up with the elegant idea of bringing umbrellas, again creating a juicy picture." He suggested the U.S. instructed them.
The Russian media repeatedly presented the uprising in Kiev that toppled Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych this year as a U.S.-engineered plot. Those events prompted Russia to annex Crimea and back a separatist revolt in Ukraine's east. Thousands have died in the conflict.
On Tuesday, Russian news broadcasts suggested it wasn't an accident that the Hong Kong protests followed so closely on those in Ukraine. "Analysts say Washington is doing this to try to spite Beijing for its support of Moscow in relation to the events in Ukraine," the anchor on Rossiya 24 said Tuesday in her introduction to the Hong Kong segment. No analysts were interviewed or named.
Tuesday's broadcast on First Channel also suggested the Ukraine crisis figured in the timing of the Hong Kong protests.
"It's possible Washington is trying to destabilize the situation due to Western sanctions and Russia's turn to the East in search of an alternative financial center," a First Channel correspondent said. "And at the same time, Beijing can be punished for a stance on the Ukraine crisis that was balanced and therefore unacceptable to the countries of the West."
Both main Russian reports cited sessions for students at the Hong-Kong America Center—a cultural organization headed by a former U.S. diplomat— as evidence the U.S. had a hand in organizing the protests against Beijing. The center's director couldn't be reached for comment.
A Beijing-leaning Hong Kong newspaper recently accused one of the movement's student leaders of being a U.S. government pawn. The 17-year-old student, Joshua Wong, described the report as false.
Mr. Wong was one of thousands of students who took to the streets in Hong Kong in recent days in opposition to a move by Beijing to restrict how the city elects its leader. China regained control over the former colony from the U.K. in 1997.
One report on Rossiya 24 also suggested the U.K. was to blame. "Experts say another force behind the protests is the U.K., which is currently losing benefits its companies enjoyed in the years after it handed over the colony to China," the anchor said. He didn't identify the experts.
Honest journalism is telling a story of what happened; and dishonest journalism tragicallly leads to cover up. Where was the WSJ on this one?
400 Bodies Found in Ukraine Mass Graves Are Evidence of War Crime. Lavrov
By Ria Novosti
Global Research, October 01, 2014
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that more than 400 bodies have been discovered in mass graves near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, in what he described as “horrific” evidence that pointed to a war crime.
“This is obviously a war crime. Already more than 400 bodies have been discovered in [mass] graves outside Donetsk and we hope that western capitals will not hush up these facts [because] they’re horrific,” Lavrov said, adding there was an apparent blackout of the incident in Western mass media.
Last week, several mass graves filled with bodies of massacred civilians and independence supporters, killed execution-style, were unearthed 35 kilometers northeast of Donetsk…
The independence supporters of southeastern Ukraine believe that the civilians were murdered by the National Guard fighters who had stayed in the village of Nyzhnia Krynka, near the city of Donetsk, where the graves had been discovered, since April.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/400-bodies-found-in-ukraine-mass-graves-are-evidence-of-war-crime-lavrov/5405631
I see an influx lately of people who are either trashing Russia, Kiev (to a lesser extent) and/or ZH for its coverage of the conflict. Usually these commenters only signed recently (but have been following ZH for years of course...). Most people commenting against Kiev have been members of ZH for years. Most who trash Russia and ZH only for weeks. Things that make you go hmmmm....
I don't like Putin that much but why don't you read in the West the news about mass graves found in Eastern Ukraine or the fact that almost a million people in that part have left their homes and are now IDPs?
I noticed that trend too.
Zero Hedge is the fastrack to disecting the news and finding out what the mainstream media is hiding from us.
One should always be critical about the news, even on ZH and especially on MSM. 'Junior' ZH members can and do make valuable contributions but as you said, there seems to be a trend among them (but not all of them). Most ZH commenters make interesting, witty and intelligent contributions but then there are those with an agenda. Interest groups do infiltrate social media.
I suspect that the tone and frequency of posts submitted by Zerohedge have come to the attention of the pro-NWO, Globalist/Zionist propagandists. Just as Wikipedia was overwhelmed by submissions which debunked and rebuked articles which were deemed negative by them -and later posts on Google, Facebook, and YouTube got the same treatment- Zero Hedge is getting its share of comments intended to do the same.
So far, it doesn't seem to have scared away advertisers; nor has it affected the tone and frequency of articles that express points of view that are far from those prevailing on MSM.
Personally, I like to follow the threads when commentators take on each other. It means that they are actually reading others' comments and reacting to them, not just to the ZH post.
I find it interesting that your post - which simply and directly cites Russian news broadcasts and media with attribution and links, is trashed.
I am not sure what the down-voters are trying to say.
Are they indicating that this is not what is reported in Russian media? Or do they simply dislike that you highlighted it?
Or do they hold an image of the Russian Government (very important to differentiate from the Russian People) that simply cannot be supported in the real life?
All three possibilities are dishonest.
The reporting is what it is. By providing links you've let anyone with any degree of integrity verify it for themselves.
If people disagree with what they find... well... that would seem to be a conflict within themselves between their expectations and reality.
True or not (okay, often not), every negative thing about the U.S. and every positive thing about Vlad's Soviet Union can be found right here at Zero Hedge.
We're your one-stop-shop!
Well be thankful. You'll find nothing of its like in the corporate in-step MSM.
Juncker is building his own private EU kingdom. The EP was already pretty powerless -because it cannot initiate legislation only propose it and then the EC can turn it down- but now Junker proposed that only his VP (and not the rest of the commission) can put forward legislation and ONLY when it fits into his 'priorities'. And some of his commissioners have dubious business connections and conflict of interest.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2574658/eu_p...
http://corporateeurope.org/revolving-doors/2014/09/new-infographics-expo...
They ain't gonna stop: German Foreign Minister Steinmeier’s UN speech: War propaganda cloaked in pacifist phrases
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/01/stei-o01.html
All we need is a blackberry, android, or apple app to track our public servants HFT style. Their leash will be so short, they won't know if they need to shit or breathe.
"to compare the current Russia with Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union is stupid."
I don't know what he is referring to, because I don't follow Czech news.
But I do follow Russian media and interact with relatives there.
The comparrisons of Putin's Russian government to Brezhnev's Soviet Union are originating within the borders of Russia, from Russians.
I can say that walking through Arbat in Moscow, you'd never know it. Putin's Arbat is like a carnival and Brezhnev's was like a ghost town.
But there is another aspect to consider.
Even six months ago there were vigorous criticisms of Putin and the government, and Oligarchs online and in the free press. They are disappearing. The 'criticisms' have begun to become the sole province of comedians. And generally it is a bad sign when only comedians feel safe to say what they think.
In Russia you can't criticize Putin or the government anymore without being attacked for your opinion. Bloggers have to register with the government. If the government doesn't like what they say, then goodbye blog.
Meanwhile in the US, you can be searced for any reason or no reason, by just about anyone employed by the government. The media is mute to every Democrat defect. And the current democrat platform is more radically communist than the Communist platform of the 1920s. The Republicans, on the other hand, make motions of how they oppose every plank in the Democrat agenda...but once elected they vote for them anyway.
On the other hand you can still trash Obama and the government speaking with friends in a public place like a restaurant and a bar...for now.
Maybe people are reading a false choice into these criticisms. Maybe people think that a criticism of Putin's Russia is like a support for Obama's US, and vice versa.
But maybe governments everywhere are simply becoming ever more restrictive, harsh, and tyranical.
Maybe it is not the US against Russia. Maybe it is the people everywhere against the governments everywhere.
An August 2014 poll released by the Levada Center reports an 87% approval from the Russian people for Putin compared with 42% for the week of Sep 22-28 for Obama in the US, the latter according to Gallup.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx
The fact is, Obama is perhaps the most unpopular president in America's history; it's a failed presidency. And, no, all governments are not the same nor are "the people everywhere against the governments everywhere."
The eurasian and western power blocks are presently in a cold war for global dominance. Eurasia is gaining an upper hand economically which is where true power lies. Russia and China are under western attack. The most cost effective way to execute such an attack is via the criticisms democratic free speech societies allow, which work against them in times of war. The US is well versed in using "democratic NGO's" as propaganda weapons to to destabilize enemy nations, effect regime change and policy changes inimical to that nations inhabitants and beneficial to western interests. Many Russian citizens believe Putin is defending Russian sovereignty and borders in a time of war, a war which any informed person knows that Putin did not start.
I was mentally formulating a response as i read your comment. You have said it all. +100
Thumbs up for Václav Klaus!
Yah, true
but then there is positioning one's self whith the change of tide
tide is turning
Russia coming in
hard to buck the tide
Hmm well like you I have a house in Czech Republic. Actually and apt in Vinohrady and a house outside in the country that belonged to my mom's family.
What you say about Klaus, its what a stupid fucker who never lived through communism would say. It was quite simple back then: to get into politics, you HAD to do what everyone else did. You HAD to be a team player.
My grandfather, who owned a large estate, was not, and refused to give up his land. They sent him to work in the uranium mines.
Klaus just did what everybody else in politics was doing, and he barely did any of it. Like you say, pocket change. And your argument has nothing on what has been stated in this article, which is a level headed politician speaking OUT AGAINST THE REGIME that is the euro.
Go fuck off back to your home wherever it is. Oh and if you see me in my black 650xi, gtfo of the way.