Outstanding post, thank you. In a few days, I might have a complementary one. In truth, and as I am sure you know well, the USA has developed a fairly comprehensive toolkit for ensuring that elections held overseas produce the right results. The blowback from one such rigging is what put Putin in power.
Outstanding post, thank you. In a few days, I might have a complementary one. In truth, and as I am sure you know well, the USA has developed a fairly comprehensive toolkit for ensuring that elections held overseas produce the right results. The blowback from one such rigging is what put Putin in power.
Prior to the 1996 Russian election, the USA knew that the Yeltsin government was deeply corrupt. The scholar ME Sarotte summarizes as follows:
`` A small tier of oligarchs had enriched themselves impressively while the average Russian was struggling with unemployment, poverty, and pensions of vanishing value. In the course of 1995, it became clear to Talbott [USA Deputy Secretary of State] that Yeltsin had engaged in a series of Faustian bargains with those oligarchs. In exchange for siphoning their wealth into the Russian president’s “campaign war chest,” [Talbott wrote in a 1995 memo] the Kremlin “paid the oligarchs back with vast opportunities for insider trading,” including the infamous loans-for-shares deal, which was essentially a corrupt auction of state assets. ``
But the oligarch money was NOT enough. Yeltsin was in trouble heading into the election, so Bill Clinton put the screws on the IMF. The result? A "$10 billion loan program" over three years . The World Bank and the USA's largest missile base and aircraft carrier, Japan, also chipped in -- bringing the total to roughly $22.6 billion. But as Sarotte notes:
"Whatever the exact amount, it did little good. Since the IMF funding was not accompanied by sufficiently credible fiscal measures, the funds quickly floated out of Russia."
Yeltsin did, however, freely distribute the money to promote his chances in the 1996 and to cling to power for a short while afterwards. But to ensure Yeltsin's re-election in 1996, these campaign donations were not enough. Wait for it, please.
Russia was at this at war with the break-away province/region of Chechnya. This led to a displaced persons / refugee crisis. International observers estimated that fewer that 500K (1/2 million) adults remained in Chechnya. Well, come election time, over 1 million Chechens voted!
And who do you think 70% of these over 1 million Chechens voted for? You guessed right : the Russian president who was waging war against them, Yeltsin! As Sarotte again notes:
`` a member of the OSCE election-observation team claimed that he was pressured not to reveal the “widespread voter fraud” he had witnessed. A US diplomat serving in the Moscow embassy at the time of the election, Thomas Graham, asserted that the Clinton administration knew the election was not truly fair, but it was a case of “‘the ends justifying the means.’" ``
Widespread voter fraud to keep the right corrupt kleptocrat in power, but "the end justifies the means." Sound familiar?
Let's fast forward. Russia became so vastly dysfunction under the international gang-rape of its assets (including IP) --a gang-rape endorsed by Yeltsin -- that Yeltsin finally had to go. But to ensure his safety, Yeltsin appointed Putin as his successor -- to finish out Yeltsin's term, to grant Yeltsin immunity, to and clean up some of the mess. Putin did win re-election, btw. How free or fair that election was is up for debate. What is NOT up for debate: that the election which keep Yeltsin in power was neither free nor fair.
Putin is very much the monster the USA created by rigging the Russian election, and by organizing the international rape of Russian assets (including IP) by key American and EU based globalized corporations. Putin does not trust the West. Why do we wonder at this?
Finally, who is this ME Sarotte? person I have quoted? Some QAnon crazy? No. Mary Elise Sarotte i is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at John Hopkins University. The primary source I cite from Sarotte -- Not One Inch More: America, Russia, and the Making of a Post-Coldwar Stalemate -- was published by Yale University Press in 2021.
We are just two years later, and one wonders if the same book could be published. Instead, all her scholarship -- and that of Stephen Cohen, JJ Mearsheimer, and more -- has already gone down the memory hole. Thanks again for this post.
Fascinating history thanks DH. They really are burying the work of Russian scholars to rewrite history. It's embarrassing what's taken place by the west re: Russia the past few years. I do hope future historians do not treat them kindly. Look forward to your piece.
Footnote: Mary Sarotte is a member of the liberal-fascist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), along with Rhodes Scholars Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbott, and long-time CFR president Richard Haass. These three are/were also members of the Trilateral Commission.
True. MS Sarotte is unquestionably part of the establishment. She also wrote an outstanding and detailed analysis which helps explain the USA and Nato enlargement helped bring about the current crisis. As a general rule, I prefer establishment sources when it comes to USA government activities. Our experts and elites do a very good of documenting their own crimes. We in turn do a very good of not paying attention.
Likewise, Strobe Talbott, for all his considerable faults, was good enough to put some damning things on paper -- on official memos -- about the USA efforts in Russia during the Yeltsin era. I'm not going side with Strobe Talbott on nearly any issue, but I will use the documents he produced as sources. Etc.
On a similar note, I have some posts on the BioLabs in Ukraine. Yes, the Biolabs are real. Yes, also confirmed by multiple Pentagon statements -- all of which require careful parsing. Read them thoroughly enough, do some background research, and the results are mind-boggling. Just damning. So I don't ignore the DOD, either.
If MS Sarotte will document for us -- will admit -- how corrupt things were and how the election was rigged, how bad and how much deeper does it go? That's a question worth asking and answering, but IMO we start with what can be reasonably proven -- which is horrific enough. Then go down the rabbit hole from there.
Outstanding post, thank you. In a few days, I might have a complementary one. In truth, and as I am sure you know well, the USA has developed a fairly comprehensive toolkit for ensuring that elections held overseas produce the right results. The blowback from one such rigging is what put Putin in power.
Prior to the 1996 Russian election, the USA knew that the Yeltsin government was deeply corrupt. The scholar ME Sarotte summarizes as follows:
`` A small tier of oligarchs had enriched themselves impressively while the average Russian was struggling with unemployment, poverty, and pensions of vanishing value. In the course of 1995, it became clear to Talbott [USA Deputy Secretary of State] that Yeltsin had engaged in a series of Faustian bargains with those oligarchs. In exchange for siphoning their wealth into the Russian president’s “campaign war chest,” [Talbott wrote in a 1995 memo] the Kremlin “paid the oligarchs back with vast opportunities for insider trading,” including the infamous loans-for-shares deal, which was essentially a corrupt auction of state assets. ``
But the oligarch money was NOT enough. Yeltsin was in trouble heading into the election, so Bill Clinton put the screws on the IMF. The result? A "$10 billion loan program" over three years . The World Bank and the USA's largest missile base and aircraft carrier, Japan, also chipped in -- bringing the total to roughly $22.6 billion. But as Sarotte notes:
"Whatever the exact amount, it did little good. Since the IMF funding was not accompanied by sufficiently credible fiscal measures, the funds quickly floated out of Russia."
Yeltsin did, however, freely distribute the money to promote his chances in the 1996 and to cling to power for a short while afterwards. But to ensure Yeltsin's re-election in 1996, these campaign donations were not enough. Wait for it, please.
Russia was at this at war with the break-away province/region of Chechnya. This led to a displaced persons / refugee crisis. International observers estimated that fewer that 500K (1/2 million) adults remained in Chechnya. Well, come election time, over 1 million Chechens voted!
And who do you think 70% of these over 1 million Chechens voted for? You guessed right : the Russian president who was waging war against them, Yeltsin! As Sarotte again notes:
`` a member of the OSCE election-observation team claimed that he was pressured not to reveal the “widespread voter fraud” he had witnessed. A US diplomat serving in the Moscow embassy at the time of the election, Thomas Graham, asserted that the Clinton administration knew the election was not truly fair, but it was a case of “‘the ends justifying the means.’" ``
Widespread voter fraud to keep the right corrupt kleptocrat in power, but "the end justifies the means." Sound familiar?
Let's fast forward. Russia became so vastly dysfunction under the international gang-rape of its assets (including IP) --a gang-rape endorsed by Yeltsin -- that Yeltsin finally had to go. But to ensure his safety, Yeltsin appointed Putin as his successor -- to finish out Yeltsin's term, to grant Yeltsin immunity, to and clean up some of the mess. Putin did win re-election, btw. How free or fair that election was is up for debate. What is NOT up for debate: that the election which keep Yeltsin in power was neither free nor fair.
Putin is very much the monster the USA created by rigging the Russian election, and by organizing the international rape of Russian assets (including IP) by key American and EU based globalized corporations. Putin does not trust the West. Why do we wonder at this?
Finally, who is this ME Sarotte? person I have quoted? Some QAnon crazy? No. Mary Elise Sarotte i is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at John Hopkins University. The primary source I cite from Sarotte -- Not One Inch More: America, Russia, and the Making of a Post-Coldwar Stalemate -- was published by Yale University Press in 2021.
We are just two years later, and one wonders if the same book could be published. Instead, all her scholarship -- and that of Stephen Cohen, JJ Mearsheimer, and more -- has already gone down the memory hole. Thanks again for this post.
Fascinating history thanks DH. They really are burying the work of Russian scholars to rewrite history. It's embarrassing what's taken place by the west re: Russia the past few years. I do hope future historians do not treat them kindly. Look forward to your piece.
Footnote: Mary Sarotte is a member of the liberal-fascist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), along with Rhodes Scholars Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbott, and long-time CFR president Richard Haass. These three are/were also members of the Trilateral Commission.
Other key players in the looting of Russia during the Clinton admin include CFR members Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs. See article: thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/
Billionaires Henry and Marie Kravis are also CFR members, and Henry is a former director. Both are members of the Bilderberg group, where Marie is co-chair of the steering committee: bilderbergmeetings.org/background/steering-committee/steering-committee
True. MS Sarotte is unquestionably part of the establishment. She also wrote an outstanding and detailed analysis which helps explain the USA and Nato enlargement helped bring about the current crisis. As a general rule, I prefer establishment sources when it comes to USA government activities. Our experts and elites do a very good of documenting their own crimes. We in turn do a very good of not paying attention.
Likewise, Strobe Talbott, for all his considerable faults, was good enough to put some damning things on paper -- on official memos -- about the USA efforts in Russia during the Yeltsin era. I'm not going side with Strobe Talbott on nearly any issue, but I will use the documents he produced as sources. Etc.
On a similar note, I have some posts on the BioLabs in Ukraine. Yes, the Biolabs are real. Yes, also confirmed by multiple Pentagon statements -- all of which require careful parsing. Read them thoroughly enough, do some background research, and the results are mind-boggling. Just damning. So I don't ignore the DOD, either.
If MS Sarotte will document for us -- will admit -- how corrupt things were and how the election was rigged, how bad and how much deeper does it go? That's a question worth asking and answering, but IMO we start with what can be reasonably proven -- which is horrific enough. Then go down the rabbit hole from there.
Cfr. What an incredibly evil gang of cretins. If we ever do get it back, the guillotines will be operating 24/7.