Posted on 01/27/2023 10:47:14 AM PST by MarMema
A U.S. government body held a Congressional briefing plotting ways to break up Russia as a country, in the name of supposed “decolonization.”
The participants urged the United States to give more support to separatist movements inside Russia and in the diaspora.
They proposed the independence of numerous republics in the Russian Federation, including Chechnya, Tatarstan, and Dagestan, as well as historic areas that existed centuries ago such as Circassia.
This is far from the first time that hawks in Washington have fantasized about carving up foreign countries. During the first cold war, the U.S. sponsored secessionist groups inside the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, the U.S.-led NATO military cartel successfully dismantled Yugoslavia. And Washington has long backed separatists in the Chinese regions of Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
After the overthrow of the USSR, neoconservative operative and future Vice President Dick Cheney wanted to slice up Russia into several smaller countries. Former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski even published an article in elite Foreign Affairs magazine in 1997 proposing to create a “loosely confederated Russia–composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic.”
Yet this Congressional hearing was one of the most high-profile and provocative calls for balkanization yet, held in broad daylight.
Titled “Decolonizing Russia: A Moral and Strategic Imperative,” the June 23 briefing was organized by the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), known more commonly as the Helsinki Commission.
This commission claims to be “independent,” but it is a U.S. government agency created and overseen by Congress.
The event was introduced by Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee who co-chairs the commission. Representative Cohen claimed Russians “have in essence colonized their own country,” and argued that Russia is “not a strict nation, in the sense that we’ve known in the past.”
At the virtual hearing, which was livestreamed on YouTube, the congressman was joined by veteran regime-change activists who have worked for an array of U.S. government agencies. The event was moderated by Bakhti Nishanov, a senior policy advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He excitedly noted, “We have many, many participants. I think this is pretty much a record for a House commission briefing.”
Nishanov argued that Western condemnation of Moscow’s war in Ukraine should expand to opposition to “Russia’s interior empire.” He added that the panelists hoped to “come up with ideas that will actually contain Russia.” The most active speaker in the hearing was Casey Michel, a millennial neoconservative activist who has made a career out of advocating for regime change against the U.S. government’s adversaries.
Michel got his start professionally working for the U.S. Peace Corps on the Russia-Kazakhstan border, and later capitalized on the new cold war hysteria in Washington. He is an adjunct fellow at the ironically named Kleptocracy Initiative of the Hudson Institute, a right-wing DC think tank that has been handsomely funded by the Koch oligarchs, WalMart’s Walton family, massive corporations like ExxonMobil, and the Pentagon.
In May, Michel published an article in Washington’s establishment magazine The Atlantic, titled “Decolonize Russia,” which appears to have been an inspiration for the Congressional briefing.
“Russia continues to oversee what is in many ways a traditional European empire, only that instead of colonizing nations and peoples overseas, it instead colonized nations and peoples over land,” Michel declared in the hearing. The neoconservative activist lamented that the United States did not use the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 to break up Russia itself. He complained that Western support for secessionist movements in Russia did not go far enough.
“These are colonized nations that we consider to be part of Russia proper, even though, again, these are non-Russian nations themselves that remain colonized by, as we’ve seen yet again, another dictatorship in the Kremlin,” Michel said.
He insisted that the event was not simply about advocating for the “dismemberment and partition” of Russia, but was rather motivated by genuine opposition to colonialism and imperialism.
This was deeply ironic, because Michel has spent years viciously smearing the anti-imperialist left in the United States, while frequently caricaturing the term to demonize the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.
When it comes to supporting separatist movements inside Russia, however, Michel curiously fashions himself one of the world’s most vocal advocates of a unique form of “anti-imperialism” that just so happens to advance U.S. foreign policy interests.
.@cjcmichel: choosing to ignore the kinds of anti-colonial, pro-sovereignty, and anti-imperial movements that will emerge in Russia is a luxury we no longer have. https://t.co/RQA2bR4pd9
— Helsinki Commission (@HelsinkiComm) June 23, 2022
Joining Michel at the Congressional briefing was Erica Marat, a professor at the College of International Security Affairs at the Pentagon’s National Defense University.
Marat accused Russia of committing “genocide.” She condemned so-called “imperial collaborators” in Russia, singling out Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. She did not acknowledge the incongruity that she herself works for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Marat also complained that the “Global South continues to consider Russia as an anti-Western, anti-colonial power and denies the dignity of non-Russian people and especially people of color from the former Soviet states.”
Similar comments were made by fellow panelist Botakoz Kassymbekova, a lecturer at Switzerland’s University of Basel.
Kassymbekova lamented that the Soviet Union’s anti-imperialist “narrative was very attractive, especially in the Global South.”
She rejected “the Marxian idea, that was popular all around the world, that capitalism produces colonialism,” and the “very successful anti-Western narrative of the Soviet Union that colonialism is a Western problem.”
Kassymbekova insisted that the USSR was colonialist, although her argument was contradictory because she simultaneously admitted that, after the Bolshevik Revolution, the former Russian czarist empire “partially underwent decolonization.”
Ironically, she also repeatedly mentioned “Stalinism” and the need for thorough “de-Stalinization,” without ever acknowledging that Joseph Stalin was himself Georgian, not Russian.
Kassymbekova used the briefing to call for the U.S. government to provide more resources for secessionist movements by “supporting civic initiatives and civil societies of its neighbors and within Russia.”
.@BotakozKassymb1: Today Russia attempts to restore the Soviet empire based on the idea of Russian cultural superiority and genocidal suppression of peoples. https://t.co/RQA2bR4pd9
— Helsinki Commission (@HelsinkiComm) June 23, 2022
Another panelist was Fatima Tlis, a Circassian separatist activist from Russia who was given a fellowship by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA cutout used to finance U.S. regime-change operations around the globe.
Tlis has worked extensively with U.S. government propaganda outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. According to her publicly available LinkedIn profile, Tlis has also worked with the Jamestown Foundation, a neoconservative DC think tank closely linked to the CIA.
Tlis claimed in the hearing that her “homeland” Circassia is “occupied” by Russia. She also spoke of “white slavery.”
In the Q&A session, a guest asked how the panelists could discuss “decolonization” in Russia while they are in the United States and work for the U.S. government, which was founded on genocide of Indigenous peoples. Tlis dismissively shot back, “As for your question, everybody who has ever dealt with the Russian disinformation and propaganda would immediately recognize it for what it is. It’s called–there’s actually a professional term for this disinformation: whataboutism.”
Kassymbekova responded similarly, arguing “this is kind of a very typical way of blaming the West rather than looking inwards.”
The final participant in the briefing was Hanna Hopko, a former of member of Ukraine’s parliament, who previously chaired its Foreign Affairs Committee, and a significant figure in the 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup in Ukraine, marketed as Euromaidan.
Hopko insisted that Washington must think “how to change not just the regime, but how to change the imperialistic nature of Russian statehood.”
But because she was traveling, Hopko’s call signal was very weak, and she was not able to speak much in the briefing.
The panelists concluded the hearing condemning Russia’s military intervention in Syria, while making no mention of the billions of dollars the United States, its European allies, Gulf monarchies, Israel, and NATO member Turkey spent arming and training sectarian Islamist rebels in order to wage a proxy war in the country.
They likewise failed to acknowledge that Russia only entered Syria at the request of the country’s internationally recognized government. Tlis referred to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as an illegitimate Russian “asset,” and depicted Moscow’s defense of Syria’s territorial integrity against Western attempts at state collapse as a form of aggression.
Intersectional imperialism This “Decolonizing Russia” briefing is one of a growing number of examples of the U.S. government co-opting left-wing rhetoric in order to advance its imperial interests.
Numerous Biden administration officials have exploited rhetoric about “intersectionality,” the principle that various forms of oppression like racism and sexism intersect.
The White House claimed to follow an “intersectional approach.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted the State Department supports “diversity and intersectionality.”
The CIA published a recruitment ad featuring a Latina agent who proudly called herself a feminist. The spy agency–which is notorious for organizing right-wing coups d’etat and torturing detainees–has likewise portrayed itself as a supporter of the trans community.
The U.S. government funds a podcast co-created and hosted by a CIA veteran that claims to speak on behalf of the “Uyghur diaspora” and employs intersectional feminist rhetoric to demonize China.
This strategy of intersectional imperialism shows how Washington has modified its propaganda strategy, employing progressive-sounding talking points to appeal to left-leaning youth.
DC’s call to “decolonize” Russia is reminiscent of an award-winning paper by academic Cara Daggett, titled “Drone Disorientations: How ‘Unmanned’ Weapons Queer the Experience of Killing in War.” This article whitewashed the U.S. assassination program by arguing it is subversive and anti-heteronormative, because “Killing with drones produces queer moments of disorientation.”
Oh thank you. I hadn’t taken it as a criticism but duh, I guess I should reread what I posted!
Hitler used this same thing in WW2 to get the Germans to fight on when they should have surrendered and got the best peace deal they could. His argument was that the allied powers had plans to break up postwar Germany, with some even publicly suggesting that it be totally de-industrialized and made completely pastoral. To his credit, HS Truman rejected these crazy ideas but they did give fodder to Hitler’s propagandists to keep the Germans fighting. This is the same idea - some ivory towered idiot planning to break up Russia which is none of our damned business.
Xi has been a superior human being when compared to Biden.
Maybe you should look into that.
Germany says NATO is at war with Russia, the US is acting like we are at war. We all know that tanks are no good without troops as part of the forces. F-16’s don’t fly themselves. The cannon fodder and pilots will be our Sons and Grandsons. Once again we go into a war, but this time with a trapped Bear.
America was a great idea, she is old and on life support now. What we have is an army and its leaders, dedicated to the New World Order. No man can change it, only God himself. I would suggest those on the Coasts move inland. Start planning now, because around Labor Day the war will be hotter than the sun in those parts.
Thy will be done Father.
If you believe in prophecy, the sacrifice of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, know that on March 11 2020, the UN, WEF and the WHO stopped the worship in the churches, and synagogues. Are we still waiting for the Antichrist? Or is he here already?
Editor in Charge of MR online
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellamy_Foster
So, now “Conservatives” at least here on FreeRepublic, get their “international” marching orders from old line we hate America and Capitalism Leftists.
Just wanted to be sure!
Long ass useless article. Yugoslavia took itself apart. They were forced together by Europe. Tibet is not a part of China except by conquest. Taiwan is not a part of China except for the fact that an earlier Chinese government was exiled there. Taiwan was at one time part of Japan. Lots of other stupidities in the first paragraph making the rest seem not necessary to read.
“Sounds like you’re trolling for Red China.”
This tactic is so childishly predictable and so tiresome. What you do is presume to speak on behalf of others, Taiwanese and Ukrainians for example, as though you have some sort of moral authority or track record to back up your selfish assertions.
You imagine yourself on some sort of high road that simply does not exist.
I’ve had just about a big enough dose of FR for one day. It bothers me that a *long time ago” I was brainwashed just like you are...and megan, williams, sappyintexas, etc. that have made filthy nests here.
Putting words in my mouth now? Only makes you sound more like you’re part of the so-called fifty-cent army, with all due respect that is.
One can love their country without wanting them to be global interventionists, bombing the world to force them to be just like us.
If we are exceptional, why the need to prove it by endlessly killing people and sending nations into chaos, terrorism, and poverty as we pull out?
We have left a trail of death and destruction in the world since Obama and Halfbright decided to bring on the color revolutions.
And yet we allowed Rwandans to be massacred by machete, children as well, without putting out that interventionist hand.
Saddam was refusing to accept US dollars for oil, Khaddafi was introducing a gold coin and African continent monetary system.
Russia has been working with China on a replacement for swift.
The US Dollar is god for the neocons and interventionists.
We have lost our moral compass and Christianity.
You sure have some low standards for human beings. But I guess I should expect that out of someone who posts garbage from a socialist website . . .
Great idea.
Let’s dismantle USA colonialism too.
Start with spinning off Texas.
The Republic of Texas.
Brilliant.
I have a prediction. And this prediction is not predicated on ‘loving Putin’ or being pro-Russia. It is my read on the ‘signs of the times’. Now, it may be true that Russia winds up on the ash heap of history, but before that happens, war with Russia will lead to the destruction of the West. Russia will be used as the means of our chastisement.
On what basis do I say this?
For one thing, every step we take in our attempt to hurt Russia only improves their situation. The 10 plus rounds of sanctions, for example, have hurt us and our allies more than they hurt Russia.
Moreover, you may not believe in the messages of Fatima, however, I place all my trust in Jesus and His Mother whom he adores. The third secret of Fatima was never accurately revealed. It was not revealed because the popes, in particular John XXIII and John Paul II, felt there was, in the third secret, very specific information of a geopolitical nature that Our Lady gave to the children of Fatima that would give Russia the means of destroying the West. Through this arrogance and disobedience of not revealing the secret, I believe our hour of punishment has come despite the ‘cleverness’ of men. I now believe this war in Ukraine and it’s outcome is what men wanted to keep secret in an effort to avoid it.
But alas, Russia was not correctly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Nor has the West repented. Rather, we have doubled down on our wickedness and treachery.
So, regardless of how much we love Ukraine and despise tyranny, this is a war, which could have been prevented. But now it is here. And we are a goat that has locked horns with a stag. Our ruin is upon us.
You may, of course, call me a fool and think I’m a misguided nut. That’s okay. But if I am right, and that becomes apparent to you, before it is too late, seek Christ’s Mercy and the Protection of your Heavenly Mother.
And if I am proven wrong, well, feel free to seek me out and call me a fool.
While I have claimed that Ukraine is the most corrupt Nation on Earth, (because it IS), I never claimed or denied that corruption was or was not the fault of Russia or the Soviet Union.
I have no contradictions or contortions to defend.
I merely pointed out the truth, that State Sponsored Bolshevik Communism began infiltration of the USA in 1920 Under Lenin's Communist revolution and passed to Stalin's Soviet Union in 1924 and continued through the 1980's.
There was NONE of this done under the Russian Federation.
Actual successful Communist influence and Communist Domestic Terrorism in America began around 1900, but was not State Sponsored until Lenin supplied funding and Communist Agents.
None of this had anything to do with Putin.
LOL! If the “neocon” left regards the US dollar as its false god, why are they trying to destroy it?
I love your post. Thank you.
“What we have is an army and its leaders, dedicated to the New World Order. No man can change it, only God himself. I would suggest those on the Coasts move inland. Start planning now, because around Labor Day the war will be hotter than the sun in those parts.
Thy will be done Father.”
Amen.
You are a twisted individual. The hate that is inside you is in control of your faculties.
“Russia continues to oversee what is in many ways a traditional European empire, only that instead of colonizing nations and peoples overseas, it instead colonized nations and peoples over land,”
One can say the same exact statement about the United State; ask the Natives and Mexicans. Maybe the California, and the American Southwest should be given back to Mexico or an independent country of Atzalan be created.
Why do you think they are?
To be honest...none of this deserves more than a nanosecond of consideration before being dismissed as rubbish.
The bottom line, it’s not for the USA to decide. The people who live there can figure it out all on their own.
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