The new confrontation over European Values between Poland and Brussels acting as the proxy for Berlin relates nominally to new Polish laws giving the government the power to appoint chiefs of civil service departments including the chiefs of the public media. It is, simply put, legalizing patronage or ‘Nomenklatura’ practices, but when the media is frankly and openly part of this patronage, official Europe gets very huffy.
Germany, the European Union and the Polish Question
The net result of the growing public row heralded by the bitter rebuke to Warsaw of European Parliament president Martin Schulz may be to unravel one of the key foreign policy achievements of Angela Merkel’s 10 years in power – consolidating her country’s hold over Mitteleuropa.
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‘Foreign Affairs’ magazine editor loses his marbles: publishes call for end to sanctions
Though the latest issue of Foreign Affairs shows continuing decline in professional standards, it has upside surprises that the editors may yet regret. In a newsworthy essay, by hit or miss, the author rejects current U.S. policy on Russia for its abject failure to deliver on expectations.
Russian Documentary Film: ‘World Order.’ Its not so hidden message and its relevance to the US presidential campaign, for those who care to pay proper attention
If ‘World Order’ is a piece of propaganda, it is sophisticated and serves certain higher values, not the interests of individuals or power for power’s sake. In effect, it is a wake-up call to avert nuclear war by reining in exceptionalism and safeguarding the principles of the UN Charter.
A Christmas Present to Russia-bashers from Johnson’s Russia List
The US establishment writers on Russia are one and all “presstitutes” and when you put their writings together, back to back, in 40 pages or so as JRL has so kindly done in their Christmas eve issue, the result is an astounding propaganda barrage.
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Kremlinology is alive and well…in Russia
For those who read into my account the suggestion that there are vulnerabilities in the presidential security, my best advice is to send in emails to the Kremlin urging Vladimir Vladimirovich to yet again sack his security detail. The last thing we all need is regime change in Russia.
Overview of German Press Reports on the Russian-Turkish Confrontation
The leading German print publications are today largely hostile in their reporting on Russian foreign policy, at best noncommittal. For mainstream, Russia is a country which invents foreign enemies to suit current domestic needs and changes them at will. Above all, there is a German confidence in its own superiority and bemusement at the follies of the barbarians at the outer limits of the EU.
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News Blackout: Civil society living in near total ignorance
While it is good that the Russian narrative is reproduced in leading news outlets, the arms-length approach implies confusion in the editorial offices over how to handle these developments which do not match the image of Russia as the West’s enemy…
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Competing narratives in the European airwaves: European Mainstream Media Changes its Line on Russia, Divided over Turkey
Europeans can take pleasure in the rare phenomenon these days of diametrically opposed narratives on major international issues being laid out before them on the single most watched news channel. This is something friends in America can only envy. Where this will lead Europe in policy choices remains to be seen.
The fate of economic blocs and military alliances in Europe: A Speech to the European Russian Forum, Brussels, 30 November 2015
It is improbable that any of the glaring contradictions and sources of weakness in NATO will deal it a fatal blow. However, in conditions of near-hysterical concern over how to cope with the refugees and still more fears of terrorist attacks, the true role of NATO in undermining rather than bolstering European security is becoming more widely appreciated.
Gilbert Doctorow 