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Stepped Up Russia Bashing
America's scoundrel media attack world leaders who won't surrender their country's sovereignty to America.
by Stephen Lendman
Russia is Washington's main military rival. Each nation has powerful nuclear arsenals and delivery systems able to destroy the other.
On December 31, 1999, Russia's lost decade under Boris Yeltsin ended. Vladimir Putin replaced him.
Yeltsin institutionalized "shock therapy." Economic genocide followed. GDP plunged 50%. Life expectancy fell. Democratic freedoms died. An oligarch class accumulated enormous wealth at the expense of millions of harmed Russians.
Contemptuously ignoring essential needs, human rights and civil liberties, Yeltsin let corruption and criminality flourish. One scandal followed another. Money-laundering became sport. Billions in stolen wealth were hidden in Western banks or offshore tax havens.
Nonetheless, Western governments and media scoundrels loved him. Decades more may be needed to recover from the human wreckage he caused.
Putin's governing style differs. He rejects US imperialism. He opposes foreign intervention. In 2007, he condemned Washington's quest for unipolar global dominance "through a system which has nothing to do with democracy."
He points fingers West. He says we're "witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations."
It's "plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts." Political settlements become impossible. America won't tolerate them.
Putin accuses Washington of spurning international norms and principles. It pursues a reckless arms race. It "overstepped its national borders in almost all spheres."
It spurns "basic principles of international law."
It chooses war, not peace. It violates national sovereignty rights. It undermines global stability. It considers aggression a divine right. It threatens humanity.
Its humanitarian wars destroy nations to save them. At issue is global dominance, not liberation. Putin is fundamentally opposed. As a result, media scoundrels bash him.
Attacks are frequent. On June 12, a New York Times editorial headlined "Russia, Soviet Style," saying:
