A Blacklisted Film and the New Cold War

Special Report: As Congress still swoons over the anti-Kremlin Magnitsky narrative, Western political and media leaders refuse to let their people view a documentary that debunks the fable, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry (Updated Aug. 4 with more on Magnitsky not a lawyer.)

Why is the U.S. mainstream media so frightened of a documentary that debunks the beloved story of how “lawyer” Sergei Magnitsky uncovered massive Russian government corruption and died as a result? If the documentary is as flawed as its critics claim, why won’t they let it be shown to the American public, then lay out its supposed errors, and use it as a case study of how such fakery works?

Film director Andrei Nekrasov, who produced “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes.”

Instead we – in the land of the free, home of the brave – are protected from seeing this documentary produced by filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov who was known as a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin but who in this instance found the West’s widely accepted Magnitsky storyline to be a fraud.

Instead, last week, Senate Judiciary Committee members sat in rapt attention as hedge-fund operator William Browder wowed them with a reprise of his Magnitsky tale and suggested that people who have challenged the narrative and those who dared air the documentary one time at Washington’s Newseum last year should be prosecuted for violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

It appears that Official Washington’s anti-Russia hysteria has reached such proportions that old-time notions about hearing both sides of a story or testing out truth in the marketplace of ideas must be cast aside. The new political/media paradigm is to shield the American people from information that contradicts the prevailing narratives, all the better to get them to line up behind Those Who Know Best.

Nekrasov’s powerful deconstruction of the Magnitsky myth – and the film’s subsequent blacklisting throughout the “free world” – recall other instances in which the West’s propaganda lines don’t stand up to scrutiny, so censorship and ad hominem attacks become the weapons of choice to defend “perception management” narratives in geopolitical hot spots such as Iraq (2002-03), Libya (2011), Syria (2011 to the present), and Ukraine (2013 to the present).

But the Magnitsky myth has a special place as the seminal fabrication of the dangerous New Cold War between the nuclear-armed West and nuclear-armed Russia.

In the United States, Russia-bashing in The New York Times and other “liberal media” also has merged with the visceral hatred of President Trump, causing all normal journalistic standards to be jettisoned.

A Call for Prosecutions

Browder, the American-born co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management who is now a British citizen, raised the stakes even more when he testified that the people involved in arranging a one-time showing of Nekrasov’s documentary, “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes,” at the Newseum should be held accountable under FARA, which has penalties ranging up to five years in prison.

Hedge-fund executive William Browder in a 2015 deposition.

Browder testified: “As part of [Russian lawyer Natalie] Veselnitskaya’s lobbying, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Chris Cooper of the Potomac Group, was hired to organize the Washington, D.C.-based premiere of a fake documentary about Sergei Magnitsky and myself. This was one the best examples of Putin’s propaganda.

“They hired Howard Schweitzer of Cozzen O’Connor Public Strategies and former Congressman Ronald Dellums to lobby members of Congress on Capitol Hill to repeal the Magnitsky Act and to remove Sergei’s name from the Global Magnitsky bill. On June 13, 2016, they funded a major event at the Newseum to show their fake documentary, inviting representatives of Congress and the State Department to attend.

“While they were conducting these operations in Washington, D.C., at no time did they indicate that they were acting on behalf of Russian government interests, nor did they file disclosures under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. United States law is very explicit that those acting on behalf of foreign governments and their interests must register under FARA so that there is transparency about their interests and their motives.

“Since none of these people registered, my firm wrote to the Department of Justice in July 2016 and presented the facts. I hope that my story will help you understand the methods of Russian operatives in Washington and how they use U.S. enablers to achieve major foreign policy goals without disclosing those interests.”

Browder’s Version

While he loosely accused a number of Americans of felonies, Browder continued to claim that Magnitsky was a crusading “lawyer” who uncovered a $230 million tax-fraud scheme carried out ostensibly by Browder’s companies but, which, according to Browder’s account, was really engineered by corrupt Russian police officers who then arrested Magnitsky and later were responsible for his death in a Russian jail.

Sergei Magnitsky

Browder’s narrative has received a credulous hearing by Western politicians and media already inclined to think the worst of Putin’s Russia and willing to treat Browder’s claims as true without serious examination. However, beyond the self-serving nature of Browder’s tale, there are many holes in the story, including whether Magnitsky was really a principled lawyer or instead a complicit accountant.

According to Browder’s own biographical description of Magnitsky, he received his education at the Plekhanov Institute in Moscow, a reference to Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, a school for finance and business, not a law school.

(In response to my queries about Magnitsky’s professional standing, Leonid N. Dobrokhotov, a professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, wrote to me on Aug. 4 that Magnitsky had graduated from Plekhanov in 1993 with a specialty in “Finance and Credit” and later worked as an auditor or certified public accountant in a tax consulting firm. “He had never been a lawyer in his life time,” Dobrokhotov wrote.)

Nevertheless, the West’s mainstream media – relying on the word of Browder – has accepted Magnitsky’s standing as a “lawyer,” which apparently fits better in the narrative of Magnitsky as a crusading corruption fighter rather than a potential co-conspirator with Browder in a complex fraud, as the Russian government has alleged.

Magnitsky’s mother also has described her son as an accountant, although telling Nekrasov in the documentary “he wasn’t just an accountant; he was interested in lots of things.” In the film, the “lawyer” claim is also disputed by a female co-worker who knew Magnitsky well. “He wasn’t a lawyer,” she said.

In other words, on this high-profile claim repeated by Browder again and again, it appears that presenting Magnitsky as a “lawyer” is a convenient falsehood that buttresses the Magnitsky myth, which Browder constructed after Magnitsky’s death from heart failure while in pre-trial detention.

But the Magnitsky myth took off in 2012 when Browder sold his tale to neocon Senators Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, and John McCain, R-Arizona, who threw their political weight behind a bipartisan drive in Congress leading to the passage of the Magnitsky sanctions act, the opening shot in the New Cold War.

A Planned Docudrama

Browder’s dramatic story also attracted the attention of Russian filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, a well-known critic of Putin from previous films. Nekrasov set out to produce a docudrama that would share Browder’s good-vs.-evil narrative to a wider public.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)

Nekrasov devotes the first half hour of the film to allowing Browder to give his Magnitsky account illustrated by scenes from Nekrasov’s planned docudrama. In other words, the viewer gets to see a highly sympathetic portrayal of Browder and Magnitsky as supposedly corrupt Russian authorities bring charges of tax fraud against them.

However, Nekrasov’s documentary project takes an unexpected turn when his research turns up numerous contradictions to Browder’s storyline, which begins to look more and more like a corporate cover story. For instance, Magnitsky’s mother blames the negligence of prison doctors for her son’s death rather than a beating by prison guards as Browder had pitched to Western audiences.

Nekrasov also discovered that a woman who had worked in Browder’s company blew the whistle before Magnitsky talked to police and that Magnitsky’s original interview with authorities was as a suspect, not a whistleblower. Also contradicting Browder’s claims, Nekrasov notes that Magnitsky doesn’t even mention the names of the police officers in a key statement to authorities.

When one of the Browder-accused police officers, Pavel Karpov, filed a libel suit against Browder in London, the case was dismissed on technical grounds because Karpov had no reputation in Great Britain to slander. But the judge seemed sympathetic to the substance of Karpov’s complaint.

Browder claimed vindication before adding an ironic protest given his successful campaign to prevent Americans and Europeans from seeing Nekrasov’s documentary.

“These people tried to shut us up; they tried to stifle our freedom of expression,” Browder complained. “[Karpov] had the audacity to come here and sue us, paying high-priced libel lawyers to come and terrorize us in the U.K.”

The ‘Kremlin Stooge’ Slur

A pro-Browder account published at the Daily Beast on July 25 – attacking Nekrasov and his documentary – is entitled “How an Anti-Putin Filmmaker Became a Kremlin Stooge,” a common slur used in the West to discredit and silence anyone who dares question today’s Russia-hating groupthink.

Russian police officer Pavel Karpov (right) meets the actor who portrays him in the docudrama portions of “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes.”

The article by Katie Zavadski accuses Nekrasov of being in the tank for the Kremlin and declares that “The movie is so flattering to the Russian narrative that Pavel Karpov — one of the police officers accused of being responsible for Magnitsky’s death — plays himself.”

But that’s not true. In fact, there is a scene in the documentary in which Nekrasov invites the actor who plays Karpov in the docudrama segment to sit in on an interview with the real Karpov. There’s even a clumsy moment when the actor and police officer bump into a microphone as they shake hands, but Zavadski’s falsehood would not be apparent unless you had somehow gotten access to the documentary, which has been effectively banned in the West.

In the documentary, Karpov, the police officer, accuses Browder of lying about him and specifically contests the claim that he (Karpov) used his supposedly ill-gotten gains to buy an expensive apartment in Moscow. Karpov came to the interview with documents showing that the flat was pre-paid in 2004-05, well before the alleged hijacking of Browder’s firms.

Karpov added wistfully that he had to sell the apartment to pay for his failed legal challenge in London, which he said he undertook in an effort to clear his name. “Honor costs a lot sometimes,” the police officer said.

Karpov also explained that the investigations of Browder’s tax fraud started well before the Magnitsky controversy, with an examination of a Browder company in 2004.

“Once we opened the investigation, a campaign in defense of an investor started,” Karpov said. “Having made billions here, Browder forgot to tell how he did it. So it suits him to pose as a victim. … Browder and company are lying blatantly and constantly.”

However, since virtually no one in the West has seen this interview, you can’t make your own judgment as to whether Karpov is credible or not.

A Painful Recognition

Yet, in reviewing the case documents and noting Browder’s inaccurate claims about the chronology, Nekrasov finds his own doubts growing. He discovers that European officials simply accepted Browder’s translations of Russian documents, rather than checking them independently. A similar lack of skepticism prevailed in the United States.

Couple walking along the Kremlin, Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)

In other words, a kind of trans-Atlantic groupthink took hold with clear political benefits for those who went along and almost no one willing to risk the accusation of being a “Kremlin stooge” by showing doubt.

As the documentary proceeds, Browder starts avoiding Nekrasov and his more pointed questions. Finally, Nekrasov hesitantly confronts the hedge-fund executive at a party for Browder’s book, Red Notice, about the Magnitsky case.

The easygoing Browder of the early part of the documentary — as he lays out his seamless narrative without challenge — is gone; instead, a defensive and angry Browder appears.

“It’s bullshit,” Browder says when told that his presentations of the documents are false.

But Nekrasov continues to find more contradictions and discrepancies. He discovers evidence that Browder’s web site eliminated an earlier chronology that showed that in April 2008, a 70-year-old woman named Rimma Starova, who had served as a figurehead executive for Browder’s companies, reported the theft of state funds.

Nekrasov then shows how Browder’s narrative was changed to introduce Magnitsky as the whistleblower months later, although he was then described as an “analyst,” not yet a “lawyer.”

As Browder’s story continues to unravel, the evidence suggests that Magnitsky was an accountant implicated in manipulating the books, not a crusading lawyer risking everything for the truth.

A Heated Confrontation

In the documentary, Nekrasov struggles with what to do next, given Browder’s financial and political clout. Finally securing another interview, Nekrasov confronts Browder with the core contradictions of his story. Incensed, the hedge-fund executive rises up and threatens the filmmaker.

Financier William Browder (right) with Magnitsky’s widow and son, along with European parliamentarians.

“I’d be very careful going out and trying to do a whole sort of thing about Sergei [Magnitsky] not being the whistleblower, it won’t do well for your credibility on this show,” Browder said. “This is sort of the subtle FSB version,” suggesting that Nekrasov was just fronting for the Russian intelligence service.

In the pro-Browder account published at the Daily Beast on July 25, Browder described how he put down Nekrasov by telling him, “it sounds like you’re part of the FSB. … Those are FSB questions.”

But that phrasing is not what he actually says in the documentary, raising further questions about whether the Daily Beast reporter actually watched the film or simply accepted Browder’s account of it. (I posed that question to the Daily Beast’s Katie Zavadski by email, but have not gotten a reply.)

The documentary also includes devastating scenes from depositions of a sullen and uncooperative Browder and a U.S. government investigator, who acknowledges relying on Browder’s narrative and documents in a related case against Russian businesses.

In an April 15, 2015 deposition of Browder, he, in turn, describes relying on reports from journalists to “connect the dots,” including the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which is funded by the U.S. government and financial speculator George Soros. Browder said the reporters “worked with our team.”

While taking money from the U.S. Agency for International Development and Soros, the OCCRP also targeted Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych with accusations of corruption prior to the Feb. 22, 2014 coup that ousted Yanukovych, an overthrow that was supported by the U.S. State Department and escalated the New Cold War with Russia.

OCCRP played a key role, too, in the so-called Panama Papers, purloined documents from a Panamanian law firm that were used to develop attack lines against Russian President Vladimir Putin although his name never appeared in the documents.

After examining the money-movement charts published by OCCRP about the Magnitsky case, Nekrasov notes that the figures don’t add up and wonders how journalists could “peddle these wooly maths.” He also observed that OCCRP’s Panama Papers linkage of Magnitsky’s $230 million fraud and payments to an ally of Putin made no sense because the dates of the Panama Papers transactions preceded the dates of the alleged Magnitsky fraud.

The Power of Myth

Nekrasov suggests that the power of Browder’s convoluted story rested, in part, on a Hollywood perception of Moscow as a place where evil Russians lurk around every corner and any allegation against “corrupt” officials is believed. The Magnitsky tale “was like a film script about Russia written for the Western audience,” Nekrasov says.

Red Square in Moscow with a winter festival to the left and the Kremlin to the right. (Photo by Robert Parry)

But the Browder’s narrative also served a strong geopolitical interest to demonize Russia at the dawn of the New Cold War.

In the documentary’s conclusion, Nekrasov sums up what he had discovered: “A murdered hero as an alibi for living suspects.” He then ponders the danger to democracy: “So do we allow graft and greed to hide behind a political sermon? Will democracy survive if human rights — its moral high ground — is used to protect selfish interests?”

But Americans and Europeans are being spared the discomfort of having to answer that question or to question their representatives about the failure to skeptically examine this case that has pushed the planet on a course toward a possible nuclear war.

Instead, the mainstream Western media has hurled insults at Nekrasov even as his documentary is blocked from any significant public viewing.

Despite Browder’s professed concern about the London libel case that he claimed was an attempt “to stifle our freedom of expression,” he has sicced his lawyers on anyone who might be thinking about showing Nekrasov’s documentary to the public.

The documentary was set for a premiere at the European Parliament in Brussels in April 2016, but at the last moment – faced with Browder’s legal threats – the parliamentarians pulled the plug. Nekrasov encountered similar resistance in the United States. There were hopes to show the documentary to members of Congress but the offer was rebuffed. Instead a room was rented at the Newseum near Capitol Hill.

Browder’s lawyers then tried to strong arm the Newseum, but its officials responded that they were only renting out a room and that they had allowed other controversial presentations in the past.

“We’re not going to allow them not to show the film,” said Scott Williams, the Newseum’s chief operating officer. “We often have people renting for events that other people would love not to have happen.”

In an article about the controversy in June 2016, The New York Times added that “A screening at the Newseum is especially controversial because it could attract lawmakers or their aides.”

One-Time Showing

So, Nekrasov’s documentary got a one-time showing with a follow-up discussion moderated by journalist Seymour Hersh. However, except for that audience, the public of the United States and Europe has been essentially shielded from the documentary’s discoveries, all the better for the Magnitsky myth to retain its power as a seminal propaganda moment of the New Cold War.

Donald Trump Jr., speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

After the Newseum presentation, a Washington Post editorial branded Nekrasov’s documentary Russian “agit-prop” and sought to discredit Nekrasov without addressing his many documented examples of Browder’s misrepresenting both big and small facts in the case.

Instead, the Post accused Nekrasov of using “facts highly selectively” and insinuated that he was merely a pawn in the Kremlin’s “campaign to discredit Mr. Browder and the Magnitsky Act.”

Like the recent Daily Beast story, which falsely claimed that Nekrasov let the Russian police officer Karpov play himself, the Post misrepresented the structure of the film by noting that it mixed fictional scenes with real-life interviews and action, a point that was technically true but willfully misleading because the fictional scenes were from Nekrasov’s original idea for a docudrama that he shows as part of explaining his evolution from a believer in Browder’s self-exculpatory story to a skeptic.

But the Post’s deception – like the Daily Beast’s falsehood – is something that almost no American would realize because almost no one has gotten to see the film.

The Post’s editorial gloated: “The film won’t grab a wide audience, but it offers yet another example of the Kremlin’s increasingly sophisticated efforts to spread its illiberal values and mind-set abroad. In the European Parliament and on French and German television networks, showings were put off recently after questions were raised about the accuracy of the film, including by Magnitsky’s family.

“We don’t worry that Mr. Nekrasov’s film was screened here, in an open society. But it is important that such slick spin be fully exposed for its twisted story and sly deceptions.”

The Post’s arrogant editorial had the feel of something you might read in a totalitarian society where the public only hears about dissent when the Official Organs of the State denounce some almost unknown person for saying something that almost no one heard.

It is also unlikely that Americans and Europeans will get a chance to view this blacklisted documentary in the future. In an email exchange, the film’s Norwegian producer Torstein Grude told me that “We have been unsuccessful in releasing the film to TV so far. ZDF/Arte [a major European network] pulled it from transmission a few days before it was supposed to be aired and the other broadcasters seem scared as a result. Netflix has declined to take it. …

“The film has no other release at the moment. Distributors are scared by Browder’s legal threats. All involved financiers, distributors, producers received thick stacks of legal documents (300+ pages) threatening lawsuits should the film be released.” [Grude sent me a special password so I could view the documentary on Vimeo.]

The blackout continues even though the Magnitsky issue and Nekrasov’s documentary have become elements in the recent controversy over a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “How Russia-gate Met the Magnitsky Myth.”]

So much for the West’s vaunted belief in freedom of expression and the democratic goal of encouraging freewheeling debates about issues of great public importance. And, so much for the Post’s empty rhetoric about our “open society.”

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).

212 comments for “A Blacklisted Film and the New Cold War

  1. mart
    August 11, 2017 at 12:11

    The efforts to keep Andrei Nekrasov’s documentary, “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes,” both from US and European
    theaters and TV, is worthy of a documentary itself. If that were made, certainly a tide of demand to see the original film itself
    would arise.
    Does anyone know how to rent it for public showing?

  2. Marilyn Harris
    August 11, 2017 at 08:24

    Sounds like the producers may have to release it freely on the web. Other than starting more time-consuming and, under the circumstances, likely unhelpful campaigns such as petitioning Netflix, how else is the wider public going to be able to view the film?

  3. August 11, 2017 at 04:12

    We in Britain suffered a similar experience when a 1993 documentary by award winning producer / director Alan Francovich – “The Maltese Double Cross” – was banned in the UK and the US. The subject: The 21st December 1988 destruction of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The US and British governments published a stream of anti-Francovich propaganda and character assassinations of many appearing in the film, and those who questioned the official government line that “it was Libya who did it”. Since then, however, many of the film’s assertions have been proved. The chief identification witness, a Maltese shopkeeper, was secretly offered “unlimited monies with $10,000 available immediately” by the US DoJ. He eventually received $2m, and his brother $1m. A tiny fragment of an electronic circuit board said by police to have been found 17 miles from the crash site has been proven by two independent and reputable scientists to be of unknown origin and a fake. A scientist working for Ferranti International also commented in a letter sent to police investigators, that the fragment appeared to be “home-made”. His letter was simply filed in police archives, and no further action taken. It did not emerge from the files until 9 years after the trial had concluded. In that same year the Scottish criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) found six reasons for concluding that “there may have been a miscarriage of justice” against the convicted Libyan Baset Al-Megrahi, and that a second, posthumous and conclusive appeal should be allowed. (This is currently being pursued by his family and their Scottish lawyer). And so the Lockerbie saga continues, almost now in its 30th year. But still the film is banned, and all comments and evidence by those who have researched the subject are mocked, and the characters of those who question are themselves attacked. Dr Jim Swire and I are close to finishing a detailed and authoritative history of the Lockerbie event. Hopefully matters will reach a proper conclusion in 2018. [The Maltese Double Cross can be found on Youtube and other internet sites. As with the Truth, information it contains has an uncomfortable habit of eventually finding its way to daylight.] Readers can see the full range of information concerning Lockerbie, and the evidence which contradicts the official US and British government version of events on our blogsite. People are welcome to study it, and challenge if they wish. We will be happy to provide documentary and photographic evidence.

  4. August 8, 2017 at 15:41

    I’ve tweeted to try and stimulate some interest on any article which may give an explanation of how the New Cold War began.
    I read the article once, and realized I needed a hard copy, being unfamiliar with most of the information. I read, circled, highlighted, even goggled a little.
    Not one indication that anyone was even remotely interested. So I walked away for a while.
    Combining my experience with your essay, here’s what I concluded. The government and the 6 people controlling most of our media already know. Critical thinking isn’t part of our culture anymore when it comes to the right to know.
    People don’t want to think about a Nuclear Holocaust, so how much does it matter what information you provide them with. They just don’t care.

  5. Michael K Rohde
    August 5, 2017 at 16:58

    I know I have offered this query before, but doesn’t anyone get upset that in our land of the free, assuming that includes the freedom of the press and media, American voters, who have at least as much of an interest as any, are prevented from at least seeing this information and making our own decisions instead of browder making it for us. He’s got billions in interest here, we have national survival.

    Russia has nukes we can’t stop if they launch. Will browder be sharing his bomb shelter in the event of a nuclear exchange? This is something that goes beyond one citizens’ financial gain which is the only dog browder has in the hunt. How many millions die if the missiles launch? Hundreds of millions when you count all the Russians. browder’s ability to bribe our Congress and conspire with our media magnates to prevent us from seeing it to make up our own minds is no different than a nation state preventing publication. We used to think that censorship was evil until AIPAC made it normal when it comes to the Middle East. I guess we have to add Russia to the list of countries where we aren’t trusted enough to absorb the information and make up our own minds. As free Americans used to do. Now we let others decide for us. Funny thing though. No one ever asked for permission to censor. They just did it. And we sit here and take it.

  6. Typingperson
    August 5, 2017 at 13:55

    So there’s a YouTube video of a Russian documentary alleging that Browder worked with the CIA. That Russian authorities discovered his $230M criminal tax dodge, and he sucked up to CIA.

    And that his apparatchik, Magnitsky, was about to testify against Browder when Magnitsky somehow died in prison.

    And then Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, imposing sanctions on Russia, based on lies from an American hedge-funder plundering and criminally ripping off Russia.

    This Browder is a lying, criminal creep.

    Nice country we’ve got ourselves here.

    USA!

    • Geoffrey de Galles
      August 6, 2017 at 14:02

      Russia, Russia, Russia = Browder, Browder, Browder = CIA, NSA, FBI [+ MI5, MI6, GCHQ]

    • Beard681
      August 8, 2017 at 11:53

      LOL. The worst part is that we are not even talking about our own “Browders”. These are the LBO operators who purchased companies like Sears, Payless and Nordstroms, pumped them full of debt and asset stripped them for huge paydays for themselves.

  7. August 5, 2017 at 13:14

    With the history of the US, not the cleaned up and ‘revised’ version taught to children, there is no doubt these evil bastas will continue doing anything that keeps their hands on the reins of power and wealth. Does not bode well for the continuance of the species though the planet will eventually recover in a few million years.

    We really need Sam Clemens. And Howard Zinn. And George Carlin for that matter…but then again the power is so entrenched just how can anyone tip this bucket of noxious slop over? Voting is a complete joke. You really can’t vote out tyranny, damn it!

  8. Geoffrey de Galles
    August 5, 2017 at 06:57

    A MUST SEE:- “Top French Intel Boss [Paul Barril] Reveals Operation Beluga:
    US-UK Plot to Discredit Putin and Destabilize Russia” (08/03/2017)
    featuring discussion of Bill Browder, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Litvinenko, et al.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H2ikdck8F4&t=6s

    • Skip Scott
      August 5, 2017 at 08:28

      Thanks for this. It certainly makes a case for an open and honest investigation. In light of Operation Gladio and the proposed Operation Northwoods (among others), I would say these evil basta**ds are capable of anything.

  9. Broos
    August 4, 2017 at 20:21

    DeBunk0 Squad, please.

  10. August 4, 2017 at 19:35

    So how do I see this film???

  11. Truth First
    August 4, 2017 at 17:55

    As economist John Galbraith said, ““People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”

    Too bad they will take the rest of us with them.

  12. Michael Kenny
    August 4, 2017 at 09:52

    First, Mr Parry describes Nekrasov as “a fierce critic” of Putin and, by implication, this lends him credibility. It is clear from Mr Parry’s writings that he is an unconditional and unquestioning supporter of Putin, particularly in regard to Ukraine. By Mr Parry’s own logic therefore, he himself must be regarded as an unreliable source when addressing criticism of Putin. Secondly, Mr Parry reveals a considerable lack of knowledge of things European when he denies that Magnitsky was a lawyer merely because the university he went to is called the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. A quick visit to the university’s English-language website reveals that it offers degrees in many things besides economics and offers law degrees right up to doctorate level (as does, by the way, the London School of Economics!). As for the film, Wikipedia: “Both Magnitsky’s wife and mother, whose manipulated citations were used in the film, wrote a protest letter criticizing the film for bias and manipulations”. That may not be a reason for banning the film, since few would watch it anyway and those who did would probably be sophisticated enough to see through the manipulations but Mr Parry’s article reveals a fundamental flaw which runs through all of his writings. He falls into the illogical “America bad, not-America good” trap. In Mr Parry’s view, all praise of Vladimir Putin is true and all criticism of him is false. That, obviously, colours his view of this film.

    • Skip Scott
      August 4, 2017 at 14:27

      So, Mr. Kenny, to be so sure in your judgement you must have seen the film yourself. Contrary to your claim:
      “Secondly, Mr Parry reveals a considerable lack of knowledge of things European when he denies that Magnitsky was a lawyer merely because the university he went to is called the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.”
      From the article:
      “Magnitsky’s mother also has described her son as an accountant, although telling Nekrasov in the documentary “he wasn’t just an accountant; he was interested in lots of things.” In the film, the “lawyer” claim is also disputed by a female co-worker who knew Magnitsky well. “He wasn’t a lawyer,” she said.”

      So even though his own mother says he was an accountant, he still must be a lawyer in your eyes, because Mr. Parry must always be wrong. Being interested in a lot of things, doesn’t make you those things. His own coworker is on the film saying he wasn’t a lawyer.

      And I see you’re back to posting late in the vain effort of getting the last word in, and not be refuted. Haven’t heard from you in a while,
      I was hoping your boss finally realized that you’re worthless and fired you.

    • Truth First
      August 4, 2017 at 18:05

      “America bad, not-America good” trap??
      Are you talking abut the same America that has killed more innocent people since WW2 than any other country? Has overthrown more democratic governments than any other country? Has exported more weapons than any other country? Spends more on killing machines than any other country? Supports more inequality than any other country? Has more military bases overseas than any other country? Has more obese citizens than any other country? Is spending more to upgrade its nuclear weapons than any other country? and is most like to chant “Were number 1” without mentioning all the crappy ways that they are number 1!

      • Skip Scott
        August 8, 2017 at 07:05

        Now, there you go confusing Mr. Kenny with facts.

  13. A Finn
    August 4, 2017 at 00:02

    Our Finnish YLE (sort of Finnish BBC) – one of the producers of the film – said last year that they’ll show the film once Nekrasov manages to cut a decent version of it. Here’s a tweet from Oct 22, 2016 by a Yle representative stating it:

    https://twitter.com/ErkkoLyytinen/status/789928793880363008

    Unless of course Browder scares them off of it …

    The film version shown to journalists in Helsinki before the 2016 Love and Anarchy film festival was 2 hours and 32 minutes, apparently too long for television. Nekrasov suggested a serial in 3-5 parts.

    • Lisa
      August 4, 2017 at 01:43

      Thanks, Finn, very interesting. I read one of the links to articles in the Finnish magazine, Suomen Kuvalehti. Browder had been given a chance to comment the film’s claims, and he was obviously threatening the magazine with lawsuit for slander.

  14. August 3, 2017 at 17:59

    Right on target. Thanks for writing it.

  15. Enels
    August 3, 2017 at 15:31

    ”It appears that Official Washington’s anti-Russia hysteria has reached such proportions that old-time notions about hearing both sides of a story or testing out truth in the marketplace of ideas must be cast aside. The new political/media paradigm is to shield the American people from information that contradicts the prevailing narratives, all the better to get them to line up behind Those Who Know Best.”

    Like that ’60’s TV show “Father knows Best” but Mom/nanny state makes the rules!

    But you know something, as much of an affront to most of our sensibilities as these trends may be, in the long run because ”we” can’t or won’t rise to the need to bring a stop it, it goes on, and is successful by incrementalism. As younger generations one after another are indoctrinated, formed, conditioned, it is now so much crap that is normalized, there isn’t much left of expectations of any kind of idealism, that is passe. The young are cynical, and compromised to the max, better to get lost in some smart phone device, and that is like sick science fiction used to be.

    ”In the United States, Russia-bashing in The New York Times and other “liberal media” also has merged with the visceral hatred of President Trump, causing all normal journalistic standards be jettisoned.”

    Trump was maybe placed as a choice, because of the fact that his embodies a type that is so f’n easy to ”hate.” He had the TV show where he could bully little apprentice and say ”You’re Fired!” (in his sort of gruff Queens brogue, who the hell thinks that is making very many friends, plus in my opinion he might be a magnet for hate just being a flaming’ redhead, and white guy persona, that is thing that has lost its luster in these times!
    So useful to the puppet apprentice masters!~! But maybe it is a hard sell with all the mock BS, that even Trump was type cast and stealthily placed all by clever moves, not anything that was unchoreographed, including the completely off the rails Fake phenomena group hysteria of the Clinton people/movement, them all, are a sick bunch! look at ’em!
    He is a clowns clown, poor damned fool, (not too poor, yet though.)

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 4, 2017 at 01:47

      I see this bash Trump/Russia campaign has being a colossal pop culture coup.

      • Litchfield
        August 4, 2017 at 07:51

        Agree.

      • Enels
        August 5, 2017 at 11:51

        No kidding, a huge coming together. I wouldn’t have guessed that it would be so seamless as it is. Just about everybody on board, I thought well, they trounced Bernie undemocratically as hell with stuperdeligates and ugly e-mail shenanigans, but even though many democrats defected to the only lesser evil candidate, and joined up, with some trepidation the ”Deplorable” elements, see… My point is: that Trump provides a kind of ”Round up” operation for all the malcontents, with out the conduit to any expectation of a course of meaningful rectification to the source of their frustration, as would have been if, Bernie had achieved his spot. That would have been a bridge too far, and poor Bernie, (more poor,) wouldn’t be able to do the need tap dance off stage at his age, and all but OTOH, Trump provides a perfect foil.

        Additionally, as Trump fields a barrage of rotten tomatoes/eggs from the angry mobs of discouraged disenfranchised ”deplorable”and other Mals, his systematic slow destruction and public obfuscation, takes with him all his supporters by proxy.

        It makes a nice little ”object lesson” that is.

  16. Elizabeth marxsen
    August 3, 2017 at 14:21
    • Lisa
      August 3, 2017 at 18:09

      This documentary, linked by Elizabeth, is from year 2007, mainly about Litvinenko case. Also by Nekrasov. I didn’t watch all of it, but Nekrasov seems to hold to the official polonium in a tea cup – version. A version which serious physicists, whom I know closely, have debunked completely.

      As for the Magnitsky Act – documentary, I once found the film, dubbed in Russian on youtube. Now I can’t, will keep looking. For those, not knowing Russian, it is impossible to understand. Have any of our Russian colleagues (readers of Consortium) seen it?

      • Lisa
        August 3, 2017 at 18:38

        Here are two versions of the same documentary, both are dubbed in Russian, but some interviews are with English subtitles.

        https://my.mail.ru/bk/n-osetrova/video/71/18682.html?time=155&from=videoplayer

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d1ylakLMNU

        I never found the time to watch the film from the beginning to the end, unfortunately. It is 2,5 hours long.

        • Beard681
          August 8, 2017 at 11:44

          Why does anybody even have to watch this film? Browder is just another predatory financial asset stripper who, along with myriad other operators swept into Yeltsin’s Russia. and picked up assets for pennies on the dollar. He then pumped them full of debt (resulting in a financial crises) that was used to pay himself hundreds of millions.

          Of course the Congress passed an act just for him, on his say so. He is a billionaire, they work for him.

      • Elizabeth marxsen
        August 3, 2017 at 20:00

        Thx Lisa. I wasn’t sure if that was the right link. guess not. I’ll look some more

        • Lisa
          August 4, 2017 at 01:35

          I gave two links to the film, but they are dubbed in Russian. My comment is still waiting for moderation, after 8 hours.

  17. Elizabeth marxsen
    August 3, 2017 at 14:18

    Is the documentary in question posted on you tube or somewhere else? Does anybody know?

  18. August 3, 2017 at 14:03

    I would also buy this film and have movie nights for neighbors and friends. Doubt this is going to be allowed. Censorship is visibly clamping down stronger day by day. Hopefully if it happens it will get posted here where to go to buy a copy.

    100 nuclear missiles in the Northern Hemisphere exploding at the same time is enough to produce a dust cloud that will completely block sunlight within months of the 20 minute war for at least 100 years. And that’s just using the ‘average’ missile weight of 50kt each. All bets are off with the those ‘beautiful’ MegaTon range MIRVs that have 6-8 warheads each and not mentioning the other thousands targeting every military base, city, and prominent infrastructure in every country. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were little firecrackers in comparison. People don’t get that.

    The aftermath wouldn’t be exactly like Nevil Shute predicted but there are some eerie similarities to his book that we are facing… I’ve shown the movie from that book to friends and family and the reactions to it were about what you’d expect. That was years ago during the first part of the militaristic Obama regime who was our wonderful Peace President.

    I recently had a double movie night showing Dr. Strangelove and then the mid-80s movie Day After. With Trump and his nutcase generals in office spewing daily it seemed like it wasn’t so far fetched and there was more fear of present…

    No, Mike K, there will be no second thoughts or guilt by the insane that rule because they are always right and beside they’ve got bunkers or large plots of land in NZ or Patagonia or the other hideaways of the uber wealthy have scattered around the world.

    At least there won’t be any second thoughts until they start running out of food and uncontaminated air and their slaves revolt…

    Not a pretty picture in this link:

    http://www.nucleardarkness.org/

  19. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 13:46

    Little baby Trump doesn’t have a clue how the game is played by the deep state actors. He has smoothly morphed into their obedient sock puppet, with only a piteous whimper or two. But he will perhaps learn to use the Obama alibi, “They made me do it!” to his advantage,

  20. Abe
    August 3, 2017 at 13:43

    Paired with the Browder brouhaha is New Cold War propaganda continually dispensed from fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins of the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat disinformation site.

    Higgins continues to propagate the narrative that the April 2017 Khan Shaykhun incident was the result of an “air-dropped Sarin bomb”.

    Khan Sheikhoun, and the Persistence of Conspiracy Theories and Sarin
    By Eliot Higgins
    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/08/03/khan-sheikhoun-persistence-conspiracy-theories-sarin/

    The conjectures of Higgins and fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta have been endorsed by the American, French and israeli governments, despite the fact that there is no actual evidence of an air dropped chemical bomb impact at Khan Shaykhun.

    The available evidence points to a false flag Sarin incident perpetrated by the same Western-backed Al Qaeda terrorist forces who previously launched a Sarin attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013.

    Using long-ago debunked “open source” materials, ever-more-implausible speculations, and outright lies, Higgins has repeatedly attacked analyses of veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, defense technologies expert Theodor Postol, former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and Consortium News.

  21. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 13:40

    I don’t think Tillerson went to Washington to take part in fomenting nuclear war with Russia. He has been played by the neocons of the deep state to have that role. I think all he wanted was to make some profitable deals for his buddies and himself in the oil patch. I am praying he wakes up and resigns. Maybe that’s what it would take to rouse Trump a little from his sleepwalk into Armageddon. But I doubt it – that might spoil his admiration for the real fascist leaders in Saudi Arabia and Israel.

    • Litchfield
      August 4, 2017 at 07:49

      Well, I hope Tillerson does not resign.
      I am surprised at how many apparently think that the best idea since sliced bread is to bring Trump down.
      Tillerson may be a businessman—he is a businessman—but so have been many, many who worked in the American diplomatic service. Tillerson *seems* to be a reasonable human being and *seems* to be loyal to the president. He looks like a steadying hand. You are saying he should jump ship because maybe the ship is in trouble waters? Huh.
      Again, I can’t understand why so many think that disloyalty to one’s employer/president/commander is a sign of character and seem just to want to be spectators at a circus playing out in DC.

  22. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 11:54

    I hope the media and all the deep state players enjoy the party they are having over succeeding in getting the congress and president to effectively declare war on Russia. I also hope that all of them will fully share in the gruesome fate their billions of victims will experience. i will work to forgive myself for that last thought, but it was heartfelt.

  23. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 11:48

    I doubt Rex Tillerson will read this comment, but if he did I would advise him to resign immediately in light of Trumps declaring WAR ON RUSSIA!

  24. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 11:36

    It now appears due to The US declaring WAR ON RUSSIA, we will not have to spend time guessing which of the ticking time bombs on our planet will trigger our extinction first: NUCLEAR WAR will do quite nicely to usher us off the planet in the very near future – like any day now, since the idiot with his finger on the RED BUTTON is very likely to push it, unless one of his mad dog generals beats him to it, or one of the thousands of lower level types in submarines or silos decides to enact his insanity without official orders. Or the tendency of complex systems set on a hair trigger to malfunction may do the deed for us.

    At any rate, with this very real crisis staring us in the face, all other problems become irrelevant until this one plays out. And I hope this puts to rest forever the silly belief that Trump would do anything for world peace.

  25. MT
    August 3, 2017 at 11:31

    I think what is positive about this is that Russian independent journalists are slowly starting to realise that the UK-US narrative on Putin is not about Putin. They have been naively hoping that the US motivation is promoting democracy in Russia(!!!) Certainly from a British perspective, one is not talking about a fear of Russia, but a deep racial hatred of Russians. Sergey Brin famously called Russia “Nigeria with Snow” an expression he undoubtedly stole from one of his handlers. When one reads the blatant racism from the ubiquitous types such as the vile Peter Savodnik, who state Russians don’t deserve democracy, one can begin to get a handle on this. The Western media has particularly cultivated White Russians/Slavs, their descendants, and their lackeys in this campaign: people with their own axe to grind and would love to once more crack the whip on the medieval Slavic/Russian “peasants.” They give the op-eds a sense of “credibility,” being of the region, so to speak. However all this will always return to the underlying motivation that has been there since the fall of the wall: Russia’s natural resources are seen by the Anglo-American Empire as theirs by right. It is this desire for Lebenstraum and it’s profits which the Russian people simply keep getting in the way of. They took care of the Jewish Problem which the Russian’s annoyingly dropped in Europe and America’s lap at the turn of the last century by creating the Pale of Israel and letting the Arabs be the new murderous antisemitic bad guys, doing the dirty work the Westminster.Washington.Web didn’t want to have their pincer-prints on. Now they can focus on the Slavic Problem once again. But we are beyond the Cold War rhetoric. Now, thanks to the mess the West has made of the planet with Almighty Consumerism, significant numbers are quite happy to encourage a full scale nuclear war (including the Pale) and the taxpayer has paid for these guys to “survive” it in luxury, at least in their minds. In other words we’re all expendable thanks to MIT, eh Noam? Watch “Plug and Pray” another documentary you won’t be able to find in English any longer (Netflix had it for about 5 minutes) – but German speakers still can.

    Glad to see Russian journalists are waking up to Western shenanigans. Still the best most balanced documentary on this subject was ironically Norma Percy’s 2012 BBC documentary “Putin, Russia and the West” which is still the best narrative of recent history and what was obviously going on subtextually. No wonder the British print media hacked it to death. The last decent conventional documentary the BBC made before the Saville implosion. Even Adam Curtis was eventually turned. What with PhotoShop and VoCo, I guess anyone can be.

  26. mike k
    August 3, 2017 at 11:13

    Through googling hr 3364, I just discovered that Trump has already signed this law, thereby DECLARING WAR ON RUSSIA. Putin and his government know what is coming now, and will begin girding themselves for the Armageddon that the mostly Jewish neocons have so fervently worked to promote, They must be uncorking the champagne now in their evil lairs to celebrate Trump joining their insane cabal. The “Christian” fanatics who can’t wait for the last days to begin must also be groveling in prayers of thanks that their fierce God is now ready to smite all their enemies and waft the elect off to paradise.

    • Beard681
      August 8, 2017 at 11:33

      ???Russia is a nominal Christian country? Many of the Russian Oligarchs themselves are Jewish?

      I think you will find that the typical Russia hater is not some backwoods bible thumper, but more likely a left leaning, CNN watching, city dwelling yuppie. You know, the people who think that oligarchs like Bezos, Buffet, Soros, Zuckerberg and Browder are just great guys and will believe what ever they say…

  27. PurpleDreams
    August 3, 2017 at 10:45

    According to browder’s biography of magnitsky, Magnitsky was born in Ukraine in1972 and emigrated to Southern Russia at age 9. LOL
    In 1972 Ukraine was part of USSR and moving between soviet republics could hardly be called emigrating, moving is the right term.

  28. Abe
    August 3, 2017 at 10:02

    “When President Donald Trump signs into law Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (H.R. 3364) the globalist plan of the last decade will be set in its final stage. […]

    “Whether or not we see a new Cold War with the incumbent arms race, or a hot war where Russia and allies embattle NATO and allies is wholly depended on circumstances we cannot know. What is readily seen in the hostile wording of the law is the intent to create more distance in between America and Russia. The Russia component of the law also aimed at Iran and North Korea, “Countering Russian Influence in Europe and Eurasia Act of 2017” contains wording that coincides with the Fake News narrative inciting Russophobia. Let me demonstrate by quoting from the section following that which decrees the US State Department will work with Ukraine to increase that country’s energy security. With regard to terrorism, the law attempts to codify Russia in with states perceived to be rogues. But more importantly, the law insinuates it is Russia that has been funding terrorism. Turning to the rough wording:

    “’The bill directs the Department of the Treasury to develop a national strategy for combating the financing of terrorism, and includes the Secretary of the Treasury on the National Security Council.’

    “Breaking this down, […] war with Russia has been a primary or secondary goal of the globalists since the effort to subdivide Russia’s wealth failed. When Vladimir Putin banished corrupt oligarchs who were in collusion with western industrialists, the new liberal order launched immediately into a ‘plan B’, a redux of the Cold War. If this is successful, America and her allies will have set humanity back sixty years or more. The end result will be decades more conflict, trillions that could have been used wisely lost, and no telling how many innocents dead or displaced. […]

    “the inaccuracies and outright lies spewed out in this law mimic the worst kind of tabloid journalism. As an analyst and journalist, I cannot help noticing the similarities in tone and accusatory framing in congressional lingo and the linguistics employed by the Washington Post, New York Times, and the rest of the western media. See if you can recognize a narrative in the “Findings” section:

    “‘(1) The Government of the Russian Federation has sought to exert influence throughout Europe and Eurasia, including in the former states of the Soviet Union, by providing resources to political parties, think tanks, and civil society groups that sow distrust in democratic institutions and actors, promote xenophobic and illiberal views, and otherwise undermine European unity. The Government of the Russian Federation has also engaged in well-documented corruption practices as a means toward undermining and buying influence in European and Eurasian countries.’

    “For keen observers who are reading, I know I do not need to remind you of the hundreds of think tanks, NGOs, and political activism the Americans, British, and Europeans have set against Russia. By comparison, the administration of Vladimir Putin has meager resources indeed. But rather than mince words, let me just deal with each section of the Senate bill here.

    “In subsection (2) the Washington policymakers content that; ‘The Government of the Russian Federation has largely eliminated a once-vibrant Russian-language independent media sector and severely curtails free and independent media within the borders of the Russian Federation.’

    “Whether this is true, or not, the point of law is that what Russia does within its own borders is of no legal concern to the people of the United States of America. Putting sanctions on Russia under the questionable legal premise here is ludicrous.

    “Subsection (3) of the legislation before President Trump now cites the Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Congress of the United States is blaming Russia for reacting to proxy wars incited by western companies, NGOs, the CIA, and the United States State Department under Barack Obama. This contention of mine is, in fact, contestable. However, the preponderance of evidence today shows the United States and western allies engaged in regime change worldwide. The point here is, the American people have not had decisive knowledge to make any such determination… and the Congress has not shown any to them.

    “Subsection (4) attempts to reprimand Russia for maintaining influence in the Republic of Georgia (where everyone speaks Russian), South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. But the question at this stage is; ‘Why at this late date is this issue brought forward?’ I think the ‘why’ is clear.

    “Subsection (5) deals with the alleged non-compliance by Russia in the so-called Minsk Agreement. The fact of this matter is, civilians in the Donbass region are still subjected to indiscriminate shelling from the Kiev junta right under the noses of the OSCE. The non-compliance aspect of this law is null and devoid of any reason, and with a few resources I can prove it.

    “Subsection (6) accuses the Russian Federation of non-compliance in the US-Soviet Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles treaty, which the Obama administration destroyed by deploying Aegis ABM systems in Romania. Again, Russia is being chastised for the only logical countermeasures Vladimir Putin has had during these new provocations. Secondly, the truth of this matter has been kept from the American people, which is in effect an act of treason by Congresspersons.

    “The latter decrees and recommendations of this legislation essentially give carte blanche to the neo-cons and new liberals to continue this propaganda and subversion war on Russia and her allies. Every word of these documents is a caveat for a Cold War that will make the past one seem irrelevant.”

    Is Trump Set to Sanction Our Dreams of Peace?
    By Phil Butler
    https://journal-neo.org/2017/08/02/is-trump-set-to-sanction-our-dreams-of-peace/

    • mike k
      August 3, 2017 at 10:48

      I am shocked by this declaration of war on Russia. Although nothing the evil oligarchs who control our government, media, and our whole deep state MIC, Intel, Corporate apparatus should surprise me, this naked aggression still does so. The hatred of all life, and everything good and true and beautiful is breathtaking. In this document the Evil Beast in our midst belches forth it’s ugly venom. If this bill passes, our fate is sealed.

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 3, 2017 at 12:30

      Abe once again you come through with some good stuff. I left a link above under Mild-ly Facetious whereas this link is nothing but Phil Butler. I like Butler, because he is exposing the Zio-Mafia that hampers everything that Putin does, and yes it is effecting us Americans and others to no good end. Putin should be seen as a hero of the working class, since he has gone after the oligarchs for all the right reasons….fighting greed.

  29. exiled off mainstreet
    August 3, 2017 at 09:31

    This is another excellent article providing a useful summary and establishing the importance of the censored film. The fact that Browder was using a well-known opponent of Putin, Nekrasov, and the fact that the truth convinced that opponent and that he had the honour to reveal the falsity of Browder’s narrative is extremely important. The fact that the “west’s” power structure has been able to totally obliterate this documentary reveals the true nature of the contemporary “west” which is an oligarchic dictatorship despite it’s claims to be “democratic” and grounded in “human rights”. Absolute world domination and likely annihilation are the actual characteristics and logical end-result of this power structure.

  30. Richard Hertz
    August 3, 2017 at 07:41

    They want people to be able to see their movie? Nothing stopping them from selling DVDs, or selling downloads. When / where can we order a DVD or download so we can watch?

    • Elizabeth marxsen
      August 3, 2017 at 14:22

      I found it in you tube – see my comment

  31. Bob Ford
    August 3, 2017 at 05:56

    A suggestion: make the film available on torrent sites. Those who made the film won’t make anything from that, but people will be able to download the documentary and watch it and spread the word. Sooner or later enough people will be able to make up their own minds and the film will eventually be shown to wider audiences. If nothing else, people might have a Nekrasov party and show the download film to other people.

  32. LongGoneJohn
    August 3, 2017 at 05:38

    FFS, crowdfund the thing. Libel charges will be sure to attract an audience.

  33. HIDE BEHIND
    August 3, 2017 at 04:06

    How can anyone find out if the producers were not bought off?
    It can be done in many ways, future filming oportunities, US military pays millions already to Hollywood film industry, even having military brass on locations and with staff to proofread scripts anf if needed even military ships planed tanks
    I will watch future progress of those involved.
    Then again an offer you do not dare refuse?

  34. August 3, 2017 at 04:02

    Driving home and Amy Goodman on Democracy Now this evening on KYRS Community Radio just ripped into the ‘fake Seth Rich story’ and I found myself arguing with the bullshit she was spewing. Every single point she mentioned was total debunked crap. And tonight this article (and so many others not on corporate news) continues to trash her entire program and every word of the people she allowed to speak. NOT ONE WORD allowed by anybody who questions. Why doesn’t she interview Ray McGovern, or Ambassador Malcolm, or Assange, or Perry, or or or….there is a list growing of intelligent rebuttal that will NEVER be disseminated in this country.

    Neo-lib propaganda. No facts, no other side, it’s like being a fly on the wall in a courtroom of Stalin’s USSR but it’s here in the ‘Land of the Free.’ It’s just disgusting, and frightening because all around us are fly swatters in the hands of the worst damn people you can imagine who are in lust with the power they hold. (that goes for the Trump minions, too). Violent corruption in all directions that I look in. Makes one want to find a deep cave and hide…

    Don’t you just love all the vehicles with flagpoles taped on? Really. Makes me want to salute every time one goes by…The saddest one I saw, however, was a mini-van that stopped at
    Safeway. Who gets out but a family of Muslims who all were trying not to make any eye contact and mostly looked at the ground as they went in and then out as quickly as they could. Bunched together for protection. Their fear was literally visible as was the hate and fear and anger on the faces of many in the store. Worse were the ones who pretended they weren’t there.

    As for the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, I wish people would get over it because it doesn’t exist. We have the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the Effective Death Penalty and Terrorism Act, the NDAA, on and on and on. And it never did live up to its myth anyway, eh?

    There is nothing coming but far, far worse. You can’t vote out tyranny when there isn’t any other choice on the ballot.

    Could you imagine the chaos if there was a ‘None of the above’ box after every group of names? Good luck with that, though.

    • mike k
      August 3, 2017 at 07:24

      Yes. When Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman go neocon, it really is scary, and presages things to come. If this can happen – the storm of our society’s collapse is going to get very violent, very soon. Buckle your seat belts if you have any, fascism is becoming rapidly more overt.

      • mike k
        August 3, 2017 at 07:29

        CN and other alternatives to the MSM are our last information refuge in a flood of lies. Treasure these truth telling resources while they last. Channel some funds their way to keep them alive in the midst of these darkening skies.

      • Beard681
        August 8, 2017 at 11:20

        ???Why the surprise? The left ALWAYS thinks they know what is best for everybody. War (Cold or Hot) is the ultimate government program. It also is the best way to make an otherwise restive population fall in line.

    • Dave P.
      August 3, 2017 at 12:05

      I used to trust Amy Goodman like all progressives did. But for a long time now, Amy Goodman has been going in that wrong direction. One has to look at the list of her donors now. She seemed to be one of those Bernie Sanders type, who sprung up from that New York – Brooklyn stronghold of Financial and Political Control of the Country. I wonder if she was ever truly genuine. As mike k points out things are quickly going the wrong way.

      Just imagine where the World will be Today if U.S. and The West had only followed the right direction after 1989 when communism fell. If only The West had followed and showed a peaceful way of solving World issues – The West was very rich and powerful. But I have to come to believe that The West has always been very violent – all over the World – for many centuries now. All this destruction of Civilizations and plunder. Majority of the people in The West are good people. It is a negative thought, but it seems like Peace simply is not in the DNA of The West. All over the West, they boast about all this perfection of Culture, Books, Freedom, and Democracy. Take a one look around, especially in Washington. Do you really believe it? As said in the comments above, we live in an Orwellian World.

      No body says Russia is a perfect Country. They have their problems, a lot of them and they are trying to solve them. It was pretty clear in 1989 and afterwards that this collapse had sobered them and made them to look at themselves. Introspection always follows after collapse. I think, since 1991, Russia tried too long and too hard – and still trying to do it – to build a better and peaceful World. They accepted their boundaries, imperfect as they were after implosion in 1991. They did it, in spite of what the West did to them after 1991. All this plunder of Russia during 1990’s and expansion of N.A.T.O to their borders. But to no avail. Perhaps, as it seems now they have to prepare for a Nuclear War.

  35. August 3, 2017 at 03:38

    why not provide links to the documentary so we can get it around and let people decide for themselves?

    • LongGoneJohn
      August 3, 2017 at 05:38

      This… Without the film we have nothing.

    • Elizabeth marxsen
      August 3, 2017 at 14:23

      I found it on you tube

      • Elizabeth marxsen
        August 3, 2017 at 14:25
        • Long Gone John
          August 4, 2017 at 01:44

          Thanks will check it out

        • LongGoneJohn
          August 6, 2017 at 03:30

          That’s another doc…

  36. jfl
    August 3, 2017 at 02:46

    @brian c setzler

    i think that ‘they’ could indeed make the film available on youtube or any other site on the internet. but those who have the film are involved in a commericial operation, not in truth-telling. they are not journalists. they’re in the business of making a ruble/buck for their efforts. they might decide to release the film on dvd first, and then, when the ice has been broken, there may well be theatre runs.

    i think their alternative is just to write off the us/eu as a market for their film. and with the attention span of ‘the market’ set at andy warhol’s 15 minutes – or is it seconds – they’d better get a move on, or face the alternative.

  37. Brian C Setzler
    August 2, 2017 at 21:29

    Why can’t they throw it up on Youtube? Do they sensor this kind of film?

    • Sam F
      August 4, 2017 at 08:57

      A recent article suggested that YouTube has a zionist censorship policy, so likely they would delete this.

  38. Leslie F
    August 2, 2017 at 20:46

    Mr. Parry,

    I was wondering if it would be possible for you to host the film on this site.

    • Sam F
      August 3, 2017 at 13:09

      That gives Browder the excuse to attack this site legally. You want it on a site with no apparent ownership.

    • Elizabeth marxsen
      August 3, 2017 at 14:26
      • Skip Scott
        August 4, 2017 at 08:03

        Wrong film. That’s the one about Litvinenko.

  39. Kelli
    August 2, 2017 at 20:10

    Is there the possibility that the film’s password could be sent to viewrrs via email?

  40. jfl
    August 2, 2017 at 19:58

    i added a link to this article to wikipedia’s page on nekrasov …

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Nekrasov#Filmography

    … see if the wikipedia mafia take it down. everything is corrupted now.

  41. Skip Scott
    August 2, 2017 at 19:47

    This will be an interesting battle between open media and censorship. I hope that Nekrasov realizes that getting the film out to the public is the most important thing at this point. With all the high tech methods of concealment nowadays, I would love to see somebody get the documentary out to the public and leave Browder’s lawyers at a loss to figure out who to sue. WE NEED TO SEE THE FILM!!!

  42. August 2, 2017 at 19:15

    Another typo you may want to fix, Bob —

    “But the Browder’s narrative ”

    Thanks for all you do, sir.

  43. HIDE BEHIND
    August 2, 2017 at 19:11

    Am so old I fart US sand and not since I began reading with comprehension have I not seen vensorships ugly head.
    As old respondent noted in the 1950’s censoship was rampant, oppression of any views unfavorable to US congressional views meant visits by FBI, neighnors turning in those they caught reading suspicious materials, and McCarthysm being taught in grade schools.
    It went clear into music and books religious and super patriots of the bull headed uneducated “Great Generation” fanatics wanted burned.
    Oh for sure do not bring up Jewish and AIPAC who remove tenored Professors, eliminate ME study programs and carry on within US intelligence agencies sesrvh and destroy operation the deem ant-semitic.
    Few years ago a play about an american female teenager who got ran over by Israeli dozrr drivers as they tore apary palestinian homes and schools soon found no public venue was open to their prrgormance.
    BUSH the minor retroactively went back years in order to cover Bush Family shenanigans and all the foo-paus made by that idiot.
    The Order even covered what had reached public domain.
    Personnaly I found myself holding hundreds of Floopy disc and other info .eans, all fn illegal.
    Clinton place a delayef timeline upon entry of UD by any and all newservices, articles critical to the Clintonista Cult.
    Censorship by ommisdion, paid for disinformation by U S military and Israeli trolls to the psychopath jewish antisemitic who just want to show muscle
    Bush war saw a massive slam upon public media info including blackball of music artist, and destruction of many old line journalist lives.
    AMmerican populace bouhht off by returns of own tax money.
    Publoshing houses that publish books by likes of Neut Gingrich guaranteed by sales to every public state and federal library systems

  44. Bill
    August 2, 2017 at 18:55

    And what about the claim that Browder is a CIA agent, along with official documents showing it? You don’t get around to mentioning that.

    • LongGoneJohn
      August 3, 2017 at 05:40

      I know of the claim, but I wasn’t aware of actual proof being in existence? Got a source on that for me?

  45. August 2, 2017 at 18:43

    The misplaced name of Browder’s mother, instead of Magnitsky’s mother, that is. I now realize, replies are not connected with their antecedents.

  46. August 2, 2017 at 18:40

    Yes, I saw that. He’s only human, I guess!

    But the highest regard for Robt. Parry’s work.

  47. MaDarby
    August 2, 2017 at 17:44

    Consortiumnews.com should be condemned to the rack for overdosing its readers on levelheaded sanity.

    Something has occurred to me as I have been somewhat immersed recently in the historical record sense WWII. Sense the bombs over the cities full of innocents, has any day gone by when the US did not kill people? As I read through the record I can see no peaceful moment – the US slaughtering people day and night in the tens and in the thousands every single day for 70 years.

    Is this really true? – someone show me the year or the month of relief from the slaughter.

    • mike k
      August 2, 2017 at 18:16

      We have to keep our huge military busy, especially it’s CIA branch – they are always raring for action, more folks to kill. Can’t let our rep for being killers get rusty. If we did, our numerous threats would get no results..
      A functioning Mafia never can afford to sleep…..

  48. HIDE BEHIND
    August 2, 2017 at 17:34

    PUTIN:
    WE ARE NOT IN SYRIA TO PROTECT ASSAD, WE ARE THERE TO PROTECT SYRIA.
    If that is not a Russian hand over mouth permission towards US.regime change, Then what else is it?

    • mike k
      August 2, 2017 at 18:09

      No. Because the regime change the US longs for puts terrorists in charge of Syria. Putin’s main aim is to prevent that from happening – Assad is peripheral to that concern.

      • Herman
        August 3, 2017 at 09:27

        Hide Behind, Putin’s statement is not necessarily about regime change. Assad has the support of most Syrians, and it will be hard to argue that in a fair election he would not win. Putin’s remarks, as I interpret them, sets the stage for that. Of course, we don’t know what Putin will agree to, but I don’t see the remark as supporting regime change, just putting Syria back together again.

    • Skip Scott
      August 3, 2017 at 07:57

      Putin realizes that Syria will go the way of Iraq and Libya if Assad is ousted. Also, the Syrian people voted (70 pct participation/ 80 pct in favor of Assad). Russia has a vested interest in a stable Syria, whereas Israel (and therefore the USA) has a vested interest in breaking the Shia crescent.

  49. HIDE BEHIND
    August 2, 2017 at 17:24

    Let’s do away with using the word Hysteria when referring to the actions of Congress and its below the belt actions, they know perfectly well what they sre doing and are doing it in a clear level headed way.
    .Personal wealth, campaign contributions and grasping for any powers granted to them. If politics is your game you dare not antagonize the entrenched electef or bureaucratic appointees
    Much of the BS is coming from multiple think tanks whose members depend upon gov grants and outside corporate donors.
    If any one of sane mind can say that US ambitions towards dominating Rusdia and Chinas yellow hordes ended when the Berlin Wall fell, then they are either liars for the Government or they are denser than that of Berlin Concrete.
    Screw those who depend upon Hero worship of personalitys, the Clintonistas, Obama and Bush and Trumpette psychophants, there are systems and personalitys that are not so much interestef in represrnting US populace that live and act, yes as Shadow Government.
    There is constant pressure upon Russia, wether it be in enrgy, entrance by any means into a foreign nation, and the placing of nuclear and conventional arms within its bordering states.
    The sic. Cold War was a money making enterprise but not just for the military industrial combines but within our educational scientific nerd community, growth in Gov Grants for NGO’s, and the meshing of think tanks that in truth had very little contact with the Peoples Houses.
    Congress that surrender any and all of its Constitutional Authority over to the Executive Branch Is now clamoring for a greater greasy-piece of money pie, yes they still get lobbied, but that is for show as lobbyist noweet far outdide the ignorant eyes of Congress.
    Congress has no power, will never regain lost prestige, but truthfully as long as they can pretend to be looking out for health and the interesting ways people screw, their pay and power trappins are safe and sound.
    Will Russia, or China for that matter, allow US to push them into having a nuclear confrontation, is very, lets say extremely, slim.
    Russia surrenders to US needs on constant nasis.
    In Syria, the closest of its allies, Russia has already ceded to US interest the Breakup along US demanded border.
    HELL US can ambush their allies planes anf bomb joint Russia syria airfields, allowed Israel free reign in skys( with their twice used neutron bombs upon Syrian military bsses and the slsightering by air of Syrian and its allied supply convoys.

  50. August 2, 2017 at 16:49

    I’d like to see this, so I can make up my own mind, instead of being told what I should think by Wall Street, the New York Times and Washington Post. But I guess they don’t really mean it, when they say ” democracy dies in darkness.”

    • Litchfield
      August 2, 2017 at 17:04

      They do mean it!
      And “they” are pulling the curtains closed. Imposing darkness.
      No more “sunlight.” Just their own artificial “light.”
      Meant to confuse.

  51. Dave P.
    August 2, 2017 at 15:59

    There is a very good article by The SAKER posted on Unz Review concerning the sanctions and all what is going on in Washington – Congress, President Trump, and all that.

    The link is below:

    http://www.unz.com/tsaker/sanctions-smoke-and-mirrors-from-a-kindergarten-on-lsd/

    • mike k
      August 2, 2017 at 16:33

      Thanks for the link Dave. The Saker is a pretty wise dude. With even a wicked sense of humor to boot. His analyses are so much more mature and well reasoned than the senseless tripe on our MSM’s.

    • Realist
      August 3, 2017 at 09:42

      And the neocons were out in droves to rip him a new one on the forum.

      They are reveling in Trump’s cession of presidential power to run foreign policy under the constitution by signing the absurd sanctions bill delivered by the new ruling junta of Generalissimos Schumer, Pelosi, Ryan and McConnell. Ex-President Trump had the option of refusing to sign and refusing to implement unconstitutional orders dictated to the executive by the legislature and allowing the court to opine on the matter in response to a lawsuit by congress, which is certainly what Mr. Unitary Executive George Dubya would have done, but he backed down. He acquiesced. He chickened out. He refused to stand for the principles on which he was elected. End of his story in the history books. Too bad he doesn’t even realise this.

  52. Antiwar7
    August 2, 2017 at 15:39

    Mr. Parry, please correct an apparent typo in your excellent article, in which you write “Browder’s mother,” when it appears you mean Magnitsky’s mother.

  53. mike
    August 2, 2017 at 15:25

    “hedge-fund operator William Browder wowed them with a reprise of his Magnitsky tale and suggested that people who have challenged the narrative and those who dared air the documentary one time at Washington’s Newseum last year should be prosecuted for violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).”

    -Funny, that’s exactly how I feel about people who run hedge funds.

  54. John Addison
    August 2, 2017 at 15:25

    Mr. Parry: I hate to say this, but this is a very difficult piece to read and understand. I’ve read it twice and I still don’t get it. Your lead is very confusing. Could you please put this in the inverted pyramid so that the average guy on the street can get it on the first bounce?

  55. Stephen Sivonda
    August 2, 2017 at 15:18

    Seems to me that the AIPAC should get the same treatment. They exert undue influence on Congress and many of them are dual nationals. I am thoroughly disgusted wit the fealty shown by Congress to the Israeli’s. A glaring example of that was when Netanyahu addressed Congress bac after Obama’s signed an agreement with the Iranians. Now they are trying to eliminate the BDS movement by essentially making it a crime to voice your opinion or even participate in a BDS event…like wearing a tee-shirt . The funding amounting to billions that is given to Israel every year is essentially used against us in the form of AIPAC. What’s wrong with that picture?

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 2, 2017 at 16:41

      This gang from Tel Aviv, has long tentacles, and they control things from some pretty high, and influential places. It would be impossible to bring them down, without implicating their Zionist heritage. Although, it would be worth a try, who is going to do it, for this remains to be the big question?

  56. Geoffrey de Galles
    August 2, 2017 at 14:26

    It sure seems to me readers would be well advised to go check out a series of four Andrei Nekrasov documentaries on the theme “In Search of Putin’s Russia”, screened a year or so ago by Al Jazeera and since posted on YouTube. (Each of them runs for something under 49 minutes, so serious students of modern Russia could watch all four of an evening.) Nekrasov’s earnestness and sincerity are perfectly manifest — characteristics entirely alien to CIA agent Bill Browder (and to his Moscow stooge, Navalny).

    • Geoffrey de Galles
      August 2, 2017 at 14:39

      Apropos my last remark, I also hasten to recommend — either as an aperitif or as a digestif — the April 2016 documentary: “Russian TV – Bill Browder is CIA Agent, recruited Navalny, Browder furious! Navalny sues!”, also on You Tube (30 mins w/ English subtitles). Vide:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOx78CBq0Ck

  57. Ol' Hippy
    August 2, 2017 at 13:48

    So far I still can’t understand the open hostility against Russia and Putin. Going through the Wa Po, which I receive as part of my balanced news summary, the anti Russian rhetoric is disgusting. Now a ‘controversial’ film is censored by wealthy interests and the government?, which begs the question again; why? Is it because it presents a case against the narrative being fed nonstop as propaganda? I appreciate the crowd funded sites such as this to help me keep an open mind and the get at the truths that escape the MSM narratives on a daily basis. The sanctions against Russia which seem to be tightening are not what we need to help keep the peace, especially against a nuclear armed state. We can do better and I don’t see Russia as an enemy, for what it’s worth.

    • mike k
      August 2, 2017 at 14:20

      If only more people would see it the way you do, Ol Hippy. They demonize Russia because they love war, and all the money and power for the few that come from war. Us hippies are more into love and peace, and against war. The “power elites” (CW Mills) are more into power and money, whatever the cost to others. Our “leaders” are criminals out to take other people’s stuff. They don’t care who they hurt or kill. They are selfish, and don’t know what love is. Those dudes are really sick man…….

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 2, 2017 at 16:33

      If you are anything like me Ol’ Hippy, it probably saddens you very deeply that we are even talking about such things as censorship in the U.S., as it is now being rolled out. I’m in my late sixties, and growing up in America, I had always thought, that for the most part, our press and media had free reign to publish, or project anything that it decided it wanted too. I guess those days are gone, but I hope that doesn’t mean this ban will last forever, because I would hate to have my grandchildren being forced to live in such a place. We need a big movement to push back against this tyrannical abuse of power, and we needed it like yesterday.

    • Realist
      August 3, 2017 at 09:29

      I’m mystified. What happened to the 1st Amendment and freedom of speech, especially political speech? If something can be stifled under threat of libel and slander charges, then let’s litigate the matter. Present the supposed facts in a court of law to ascertain their veracity. There must be someone with as much money as Browder with an interest in seeing the supposed truth prevail to pay for the defense. Since the facts Browder wants to remain hidden would come out in such a trial, someone must be under threat of their life if they make such an attempt. I submit that Browder is probably a gangster who has let it be known that anyone challenging his suppression of the facts will be whacked. Too bad for justice that Browder’s interests and those of the American government happen to coincide.

  58. Mild-ly Facetious
    August 2, 2017 at 13:08

    Schemes & Dreams Of Zionists and Neocons
    By Karl Schwarz
    9-10-8

    BBC Hardtalk guest for September 10, 2008 was Mr. William F. Browder. Even though his investment fund is one of the largest foreign investors in Russia he was recently declared ‘persona non grata’ in Russia and has been denied entry to that nation. If you recall, TNK-BP had a recent flap and BP pulled all of their 150 people out of Russia. The new CEO of TNK-BP will be a Russian, not a person from the US or UK. That was announced last week.

    The line is drawn in the sand regarding Western Zionist schemes to wedge in on the Russian energy market.

    William F. Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, along with well-known Lebanese Jew banker Edmond Safra (now deceased). You may recall that he was supposedly killed by his caretaker in Monaco years ago.

    It takes some time but any diligent researcher can find Safra’s ties to George Soros, Marc Rich (pardoned by Clinton for crimes in the US), and Bruce Rappaport, a Zionist Jew Swiss banker who is also on the Russia Shit List. All three of them are well-known Zionist Jew thugs and all three of them are on the Russian List.

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E3DE1038F93
    1A1575BC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

    Rappaport has major ties to Marc Rich, the Zionist West criminal who Russia does not like or trust, and who is directly involved with Bank Menatep and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former head of Yukos Oil. He was also directly tied to a $15 billion money laundering scam that involved Bank Menatep, Bank of New York and Zionist Jew dual citizen Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos. The largest Russia oil company at that time, Yukos, was taken over by Zionist Jews in a major scam and Putin hammered them.

    Browder’s company was pursuing major investments in Russian energy since 1996 and has made significant investment into some of the Russian giants such as Gazprom, now the world’s largest natural gas company. Reportedly the total amount invested was about $4 billion and was mainly in banking, oil and natural gas. Mr. Browder was very specific that it was not his money; he represents ‘others’ in these Russia investments and collects his fees for management.

    Sniff? Yeah, that is the Rothschild and Zionist West target every time: oil, natural gas and banking.

    • Mild-ly Facetious
      August 2, 2017 at 13:15

      Find under Google title __ Schemes & Dreams Of Zionists and Neocons

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 2, 2017 at 16:25

      I’M leaving you a link to Phil Butler, after reading what you wrote here I think you will enjoy reading what Butler has to say. Butler is on to this Zionist Mafia stuff, and how Putin has reacted to it.

      https://journal-neo.org/author/phil-butler/

      I hope Mild-ly Facetious that Butler is new to you, and if not that you enjoy reading his writings. Also Mild-ly are you related to Overly?

  59. mike k
    August 2, 2017 at 13:02

    This episode of supression reminds me of the present desperate attempt by CNN and others to characterize any possibility that Seth Rich might have leaked the DNC emails as “fake news.” Readers of CN and other open sources know that Rich’s murder has all the marks of a political hit job. Whether the FBI played a part in this is unclear; it is entirely possible that DNC operatives did the job themselves, or hired thugs to carry it out. The hints and reward offered by Assange point strongly to Rich being the leaker. The recent report by the VIP’s makes this even more likely, since they have proved that this could not have been a hack, but some insider had to download these files to a zip drive, and pass it on to Wikileaks.

    • mike k
      August 2, 2017 at 13:49

      There is one question about the Seth Rich affair that maybe some wise commentator here might answer: can it be shown that Seth Rich had either known access to, or opportunity to download the file in question? We can surmise what his motives might have been, but what of opportunity? Where, when, how did he do what we think he probably did?

      • Adrian Engler
        August 2, 2017 at 15:31

        As far as I know, there is no public information that confirms or disproves that Seth Rich had the kind of access to the DNC computer system that would have allowed him to access the data that were then given to Wikileaks. He was a data analyst, and his tasks had to do with voter databases, so it would be at least plausible – but not certain – that he had more general access.

        I think if the police investigation is conducted in a serious way, all potential leads have to be followed, and if someone who worked with the DNC databases was murdered around the time when these significant leaks happened, it would, of course, be important for the police to determine whether the victim of the murder could have been connected with these leaks because this could help finding the murderers – and if this possibility can be excluded, the police could concentrate on other leads (certainly, it also has to be investigated whether there might be some connection with activities of the Awan brothers who seem to have had access to everything at the DNC).

        But the way many media react to any pressure that all leads are followed in that murder case in an extreme way (“crazy conspiracy theory”) suggests that some people are not in favor of a serious police investigation that follows all significant leads.

        The raw facts that someone who worked with the DNC databases was murdered at the time when DNC data were leaked obviously looks suspicious, and although it is certainly possible that the murder was not connected with Seth Rich’s work at the DNC, it is clear that the potential connection should be thoroughly investigated. It gets even more absurd when those who write that the idea that there might be a connection between the murder and the DNC leaks is a “crazy conspiracy theory” at the same time peddle the Russian hacking story, which deserves the name “crazy conspiracy theory” much more. While in one case, there is an undisputed fact, the murder of someone who worked at the DNC that might lead to more, the Russiagate conspiracy theory is hardly based on anything concrete, and most of the arguments are absurd. For example, it is said that the hacks were so sophisticated that a secret service behind them, but then, such a highly sophisticated agent of a government that denies its involvement was so stupid that he left the name of the founder of the KGB in the metadata of a document (this is based on the assumption that “Guccifer 2.0” was really the one who gave the data to Wikileaks). Or it is said that the hacks were done during “Moscow office hours” (not only is the time difference to Central European Time to Moscow only one hour in summer and some countries in the Middle East are in the same time zone as Moscow, but crucialy “Moscow office hours” just means the later part of the night and the morning in the Eastern US, and hackers often prefer such times because then, administrators are less likely to be present and to react, hacking is hardly a typical nine to five job – and, of course, hacking attempts that happen all the time with many servers do not exclude that Wikileaks received the e-mails from an internal leaker). A large part of the “suspicious” IP addresses published by the Department of Homeland Security were simply TOR exit nodes. The only claim by Crowdstrike that was not blatantly absurd – an alleged connection with hacking of Ukrainian military apps – has been debunked both by the British think tank Crowdstrike quoted and the Ukrainian army. So, it is really rather the desperate attempts to attribute the leaks to Russia despite the lack of concrete facts that support this that deserve the term “crazy conspiracy theory”.

        What I find most extreme is when some people pretend that respect for the victim of a murder requires that some obvious potential leads in the murder case are ignored a priori and that there is no pressure on the police to follow all relevant leads, even if they are politically sensitive. I think that, on the contrary, respect for the victim of the murder should lead to more pressure on the police that they really follow all leads.

        • mike k
          August 2, 2017 at 15:59

          Thanks. It has been said that the atty. provided to Rich’s parents by the DNC probably influenced them to ask for privacy, and deny Rich had anything to do with a leak. Perhaps easy to convince these two democrats that any such implication is scurrilous, and would reflect badly on their son.

          How quickly the DC police basically dropped the investigation is very highly suspicious, if not outright incriminating. Certainly a bullet is usually a sure way to silence a possibly vocal whistle blower. Perhaps if Rich had realized who he was dealing with, the danger it put him in, he would have left some letters to be found in case of his death. The poor guy may have still had some trust in these mafia crooks, even after he discovered their dirty tricks against Sanders. I don’t think I would be walking alone on the dark DC streets late at night if I had just pulled off the leak he most likely had. Maybe he died from an excess of trustfulness?

          • mike k
            August 2, 2017 at 16:10

            Another interesting question is, if someone did do a hit on Rich, how did they discover that he had done the leak? Is their any trace left on a computer that someone uploaded a file? If they did the hit, they must have been pretty sure it was him that leaked the file. Would he have been naïve enough to share knowledge of his exploit with someone in the DNC outfit, naively trusting them? He did not show much caution in this affair, as far as we know.

        • August 2, 2017 at 19:54

          Pulitzer-Prize Winning Reporter: FBI Report Shows It Was Seth Rich – Not Russians – Who Gave DNC Emails to Wikileaks
          http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/08/pulitzer-prize-winning-reporter-fbi-documents-show-seth-rich-not-russians-gave-dnc-documents-wikileaks.html

        • aquadraht
          August 3, 2017 at 07:43

          I wholeheartedly agree. I want to add that Felix Edmundovich Dzershinsky was not the founder of the KGB, rather of the Czeka (extraordinary committee, secret and military police of the soviet power and predecessor of secret services) during Russian civil war, and afterwards leader of the NKVD (people’s commissariat of inner affairs, comprising of both ministry of interior and secret service). KGB, the soviet secret service, was founded only 1954 with the separation of MWD (ministry of inner affairs) and the secret service branch. It was dissolved in 1991.

          Dzershinsky war of polish-lithuanian descent (from lower nobility), co-founder (together with Rosa Luxemburg) of the SDKPiL (social democracy of the kingdom of Poland and Lithuania) in 1900, a radically internationalist party. Dzershinsky remained a dedicated internationalist and even anti-nationalist (in contrast to Lenin, who considered nations and nationalism/patriotism a potentially positive force), he never was a Russian, or felt like a Russian. His aim was world revolution, and soviet power only a step on this way.

          I mention that such broadly as it is scarcely known in the West while nearly everybody is aware of it in the Russosphere. Here, in contemporary Russia, Dzershinsky is eyed at best skeptikally, often vilified and considered an enemy of Russia and internationalist utopist.

          The feelings in most of Russia (outspokenly stressed by Vladimir Putin) are that the internationalist scope was one of the main errors of the Soviet Union leading to overextension of her power and eventual demise. And Dzershinsky was an even more radical partisan of that path than Lenin. All this is widely present in contemporary Russia where the events of the revolutionary period are discussed as passionately as the Civil War in the United States.

          There is no realistic reason why a secret service operator of contemporary Russia, most likely a fervent Russian patriot or even nationalist, will make positive mention of a historical and political figure like Dzershinsky. But it is fairly obvious that for western russophobes, Russia, Soviet Union, communism, and Putin are all the same. And so it is “clear” that the bad Russkies must revere the dark knight of the Soviet secret services. This narrative is crying loud to be western propaganda.

    • Litchfield
      August 2, 2017 at 14:45

      Ray McGovern, Murray, and others have been saying for months that it was a LEAK, not a HACK.

      They said openly months ago that a HACK could be electronically tracked and it would be very easy for security NSC or whatever to track the HACK.

      Apparently this has not been done because the DNC computers have not been subjected to forensics. Nevertheless the hack meme has overtaken the leak info.
      Per the Wiki entry on Rich—which is a lot about the “conspiracy theories”—his job was “Voter Expansion Data Director. One of his tasks at the DNC was the development of a computer application to help voters locate polling stations,” To me that sounds like opportunity: access to DMC computers and adequate knowledge to find his way around different parts of the data stored on the computers.

      Re ways to show the film, YouTube is also subject to a lot of political pressure. A better bet would maybe be via a blog on WordPress. I am not an expert in such things but just read a ms. about how ISIS etc. have their e-magazines running on WordPress.

      • Joe Tedesky
        August 2, 2017 at 16:15

        If the Seth Rich story is nothing more than a ‘big nothingburger’, then what about young Seth’s murder caught the attention of Donna Brazile. Read the link.

        http://yournewswire.com/donna-brazile-seth-rich-murder/

        Also, have you noticed that when Donald Trump does something like coach his son on what happened at the Russia meeting (as it has become to be known) that’s a scandal. On the other hand when it’s Hillary selling off a fifth of the U.S. uranium stockpile, that’s a nothingburger…this nothingburger applies to everything Hillary does by the way, like unsecured computer servers being set up in her basement for government use, or her trashing her opponents chances in the Democratic primary, and or etc type Hillary things which she does, which is nothing, or nothing much.

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 2, 2017 at 16:08

      Here is a link which is long, but it looks like a timeline of events regarding Seth Rich, which should be studied.

      https://our.wikileaks.org/Seth_Rich_Murder

    • Sam F
      August 2, 2017 at 21:05

      Another good story on the new Hersh information at ZeroHedge: “Seymour Hersh: ‘RussiaGate Is A CIA-Planted Lie, Revenge Against Trump'”
      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-02/seymour-hersh-%E2%80%98russiagate%E2%80%99-cia-planted-lie-revenge-against-trump

  60. Mild-ly Facetious
    August 2, 2017 at 12:48

    Putin fights back?

    “This is all ‘tomorrow’s money.’ This is money that will come later through the creation of a better investment climate.”

    It’s like fighting back From the Ground up.
    (for Putin and the Russian Nation of people)
    Currency Imperialism has Putin trapped
    under Anglo-American Establishment
    Western Civilization Ascetic Rule Of Law
    Where Maximum ‘Capitalization’ is Queen/
    Rothschild Dynasty King of all-shot-callers
    (Who Authorized the Murder of the Romanov’s)?

  61. August 2, 2017 at 12:40

    The article conjures up some ominous implications apart from the immediate issue of the Nekrasov film. If the main threat to releasing the film was in fact fear of lawsuits, then it stands to reason that all the multi-national trade agreements have succeeded in intimidating free media beyond borders i.e. corporate lawyers without borders.

  62. Roza Shanina
    August 2, 2017 at 12:35

    Check out Browder running away when being served a subpoena in New York Feb.3, 2015.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryVavTF6hR0

    • Litchfield
      August 2, 2017 at 14:33

      Ha ha I used to live on that street, looks like the same block. Gentrification takes odd paths . . .

  63. John Neal Spangler
    August 2, 2017 at 12:17

    Actually, because of Browder’s testimony in Congress, A.G. Sessions could and should prosecute him for perjury, but he is probably too dumb to do it/

  64. Litchfield
    August 2, 2017 at 12:09

    Thank you, thank you , thank youi.
    I would never have known anything about this.
    I had no idea what the name Magnitsky meant.
    I wonder whether the Canadian group, Cinema Politica, would sent this to its groups.
    The sophistication of the attempts to quash the film are in the same vein as the suppression of BDS and the suppression of translations Udo Ulfkotte’s book, also of Fletcher Prouty’s books.

    Freedom of speech and dissent have become too dangerous to those who want to control us.
    1984 is here. The internet provides teh only short circuit of these totalitarian actions.

    Suppression of these works really puts the “total” in “totalitarian.” The idea is: Total control. No way out. Forget it. All exits are barred.

    Very, very scary.

    This article must be circulated widely.

    • Larco Marco
      August 2, 2017 at 12:22

      An early casualty of the “Fake News” suppression.

    • André Steele
      August 3, 2017 at 05:43

      Nobody is censoring this film. Nobody wants to see it. I have had the displeasure of seeing it and since I play a small role in it I can tell you it is complete and utter propaganda. Very clever propaganda but bullshit nonetheless. Why do you think Russia is your friend? How did you come by this opinion? Do you speak Russian? Do you follow how Russia crushes media and opposition? Do you know what it’s doing in Armenia, Latvia and Serbia? You don’t. Understand before you talk. You should be very afraid of Russia and ignorant journalists like Robert Perry should report stories not get them from Russian paid PR firms.

      • Skip Scott
        August 3, 2017 at 08:40

        Thank you Andre for your truly deep and enlightening perspective. Please tell us what role you play, so we can all admire your talent when we get to see the film. And I can assure you that I want to see the film, and since no one is censoring it, please tell me where I can buy the DVD or go see it in a theater.

      • Litchfield
        August 3, 2017 at 09:47

        Dear Andre:
        I would just as soon see the film for myself and make up my own mind.
        Where can it be viewed?
        Please provide a link.
        Thanks.

      • fudmier
        August 3, 2017 at 13:07

        Andre’ you make the same point I do, people allow their own governments to imprison them. In America the US Constitution divides our 340,000,527 person nation into two groups.. let us call them Group A and Group B.

        Characteristics Group A Group B

        size 527 (P, VP, 2 Senators, 1 rep) 340,000,000
        Ans. to the Pharaohs All all
        salaries paid All in the group None
        elected All in the group None
        vote on laws All in the group None
        Vote on persons none,except among themselves all people can vote for up to five persons
        vote to declare war All in the group None
        vote on Budget All in the group None
        vote on Education All in the group None
        vote on Abortion All in the group None
        vote to Maintain Military All in the group None
        right of corruption All in the group None

        The data suggest the Pharaohs keep the people of the world in separate corals (the nation state). Each nation adopts a management theory and uses it to manage a series of sub corals (states, territories, countries, cities, etc.)
        The USA data shows 1 elected, salaried slave driver, can keep 645,162 Pharaoh owned slaves working in an efficient manner.
        I think anyone in a nation state, no matter the nation state, should be very afraid of the leaders of their own as well as all nation states..because these leaders almost always use their power over the resources of the nation they command to do in some manner or other what you claim Russian leaders do.. Its an unsolved problem in humanity to devise a workable nation state management model that conforms and limits actions of the leaders in power in the nation to actual informed will of the nation’s people. ..

        Recognition of this leadership problem is embodied in the 1st ten amendments to the US Constitution, these ten amendments are collectively called the bill of rights.

        • William
          August 5, 2017 at 12:32

          I see the words are English but they are put together in such a way as to make zero sense. I’d be happy to learn your perspectives and point, but I understand your prose not.

      • Jadranka
        August 5, 2017 at 08:59

        Andre Steel – Your words are enough to see what kind of man you are.
        You are one little man who wants to become famous, as well as the main actors of the story.
        When you know so much, then tell me what Russians have done wrong in Serbia?
        I was born in Serbia, and I have been living there for more than half a century.
        Maybe I’m blind to my eyes, so you can enlighten me with your knowledge:).
        If I could decide, I would prefer that the president of the state be Mr. Putin, and not the current Vu?i? who rules the state solely on the orders that he receives from Brussels and Washington.
        Friendly regards to all.

      • Brian S.
        August 6, 2017 at 19:53

        Do you know what goes on in the US agenda setting media? Have you watched Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media?

        Our corporate news media is controlled by 6 corporations and 15 billionaires. It is very clever propaganda but propaganda nonetheless.

  65. August 2, 2017 at 12:00

    Browder now has British nationality? That’s enough to make me want to renounce mine and take up the Norwegian citizenship of my mother.

    • Litchfield
      August 2, 2017 at 12:14

      The Britain-Congress connection is another fragment of evidence as to the connivance of British spook entities also in the Russia-gate farce. That is, on many levels Americian and British security services seem to be working hand in glove.

      Why is the congress cozying up to this “new Brit”?
      Why does he have UK citizenship, anyway?
      So he can be active in financial manipulations in the City?
      Because anything legit can surely be done via offices of US firms in the UK.
      What is his story?
      Details?

      • Brad Owen
        August 3, 2017 at 05:09

        It’s easy enough to figure out for someone who reads EIR: The Street are the junior partners, The City is where Grand Strategy and Policy is made. The City is where centuries-long experience in running Empire exists. The City is the capital of what was once the British Empire, now gone global, with the recapture of its rogue colony USA-via-The Street, and “Londonistan” is the capital for the global terror movement used to justify police state methods in combatting it.

        • Litchfield
          August 3, 2017 at 09:44

          Thanks. Yes, I think this explains Browder’s needing to have UK papers.
          But I wonder how he got them.
          I don’t think it is that easy to do.

          • Brad Owen
            August 3, 2017 at 11:30

            Not easy for you and me, perhaps, but all things are apparently easy for the Managerial Elite of the Global Oligarchy.

    • Brad Owen
      August 3, 2017 at 05:16

      Transferring from the Realm of the House of Guelph/Saxe-Coberg-Gotha to the Realm of the House of Oldenberg would probably be an exercise in futility, as per “Return of the Monarchs: politics for a new Dark Age”‘ from EIR search box.

      • Litchfield
        August 3, 2017 at 09:45

        What is EIR?

        Thanks.

        • Brad Owen
          August 3, 2017 at 11:31

          Executive Intelligence Review (EIR).

    • Typingperson
      August 3, 2017 at 22:50

      I’m assuming that’s a tax dodge on Browder’s part. Inspiring American that he is.

    • Typingperson
      August 5, 2017 at 13:31

      I am assuming it’s a tax dodge on Browder’s part. His crooked tax avoidance, to the tune of $230 million, is what attracted scrutiny of Russian authorities in the first place.

      Which he sucessfully spun into Russian persecution of his lying, crooked, tax-dodging self. Congress lapped up his lies and imposed sanctions on Russia with Magnitsky Act.

      We are down the rabbit hole here in USA.

    • August 11, 2017 at 14:03

      Brilliant idea. I would if I could!

  66. Brian Stegner
    August 2, 2017 at 11:57

    If anyone involved in the making of this documentary was seriously interested in having it being both viewed, and considered, they would release it online via YouTube, BitTorrent, etc. It would draw attention to itself that way. It seems naive of the producers to expect those who control the media, and the party lines they espouse, to make the first move vis-a-vis broadcast or distribution. A wider viewership, via any of the many avenues that are long-established, could build a “bottom-uip” groundswell of demand for the film’s availability… A password-encrypted Vimeo? Are you kidding me? Please. In the modern world, the argument that “they won’t let us put it on the telly, so we guess nobody can access the information…” is specious, at best.

    • James lake
      August 2, 2017 at 12:07

      I agree – the could even send it via twitter to independent bloggers.
      There are many ways to get the information out there.

      It therefore begs the question why?

      • Neil
        August 2, 2017 at 13:29

        300+ pages of legal threats might be why! Hedge fund billionaires with unlimited legal resources can tie you up in the courts for years and bankrupt you in the process. Would you personally put everything you have on the line in such a situation?

      • Kelli
        August 2, 2017 at 20:16

        Yep. Or via email. Where there is a will there is a way.
        Most people do not buy into the Russian narrative. They just don’t know what to do about it…

    • mike
      August 2, 2017 at 12:38

      It is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCDF4lTe7rc

      But when you go there youtube says it is “deleted” and gives a link to another site (which I am not going to click on right now.)

      • RamboDave
        August 2, 2017 at 17:04

        I clicked on the web site link you mentioned. It takes you to a site called moviease.com. When I press on the “play” button, it says I must first register “for free”.. So I press on that button, and it says I must open a free account with my credit card number.

        It says:
        “Because we are only licensed to distribute certain movies to U.S. and Canadian customers, we ask that you verify your mailing address by providing us with a valid credit card number. We GUARANTEE that NO CHARGES will be applied for validating your account. ”

        Is there anyone out there stupid enough to do this?

        • Skip Scott
          August 3, 2017 at 07:38

          I somehow found “flixaddict” the same way, but didn’t give them my card info. There are also many complaints about them on the web.

    • Bryan
      August 2, 2017 at 13:10

      Totally agree. This is the obvious question that bugs me every time I read about this, or about the “Ukraine on Fire” documentary. And I don’t really buy the fear of lawsuits, at least in the United States.

      • Sam F
        August 2, 2017 at 20:06

        Not sure why you would not believe the fear of lawsuits as an explanation; not only is the US the most litigious society, probably because it is the most broadly injured by corruption, it also has the most corrupt judiciary in the world. So money buys results in court, both state and federal, in every state where I have experience (FL, GA, DC, MA, ME, CA) and no doubt all of the others. I presume that it is the most corrupt in the world because it is 100 percent corrupt; perhaps others are tied for that distinction.

      • Realist
        August 3, 2017 at 09:04

        There are questions Man was never meant to ask, truths he was never meant to know. Your betters are simply protecting your fragile mind.

      • Camille
        August 4, 2017 at 20:22

        You can actually buy Ukraine on Fire. I have it. Check out Oliver Stone’s website for buying info.

    • Adrian Engler
      August 2, 2017 at 14:27

      Probably, they are afraid of lawsuits, and I suppose most video portals would remove it quickly for copyright infringement. Possibly, some of the people who were involved would have the possibility to upload the film somewhere, but they would not get the permission to do so legally (even if the copyright holders – probably that includes the TV stations ZDF and Arte – wanted to make the film freely accessible, they would be afraid of lawsuits by Browder), and films that are uploaded illegally are often quickly removed.

      For those who understand Russian, this is not a problem. If you look for this film by Nekrasov in Russian, you can easily find it at least twice in full length on Youtube. It is a relatively bad Russian version with Russian voiceover over the original, mostly English sound (only those relatively few scenes where people talk in Russian in the original sound nice), but for Russian speakers, it is understandable without problems (while the Russian voiceover probably makes the original English mostly unintelligible).

      In this case, there may be special reasons why Browder and his people care less about people who understand Russian to be able to watch the film than about a typical Western audience, but also normal Hollywood films where the only problem is copyright infringement can often easily be found on the Internet in a Russian version, while English versions are removed much more quickly.

      In any case, I think this film should be accessible, and people should be able to buy it as a DVD. I found the film interesting and quite convincing. I would also be interested in attempts at a serious rebuttal, but most rebuttals I have seen seem to have been written by people who either have not watched the film, at all, or at least don’t challenge anything concrete presented in the film, but are just enraged that someone dares to present facts that don’t support their preferred version of the story. The biggest irony is probably when those who support that a Western audience only gets to see one side of the story write about “illiberal values” and don’t have in mind this de facto censorship, but the film with its detailed, fact-based challenge to Browder’s narrative.

      • Brad Owen
        August 3, 2017 at 04:59

        All people really have to know is Browders background as a hedge fund manager. That should immediately tell them what Occupy Wall Street folks would know about him and his ilk. That and the complete ban on the doc probably has already made up the public’s mind: Browder is typical Street scum and a P.O.S. liar. What I find hilarious is his father was the former head of the Communist Party in USA, so he is also probably in league with his comrade “smash and grab” oligarchs in Russia, who completely hate Putin for strangling their Game.

        • TS
          August 4, 2017 at 09:24

          > What I find hilarious is his father was the former head of the Communist Party in USA,

          But in those days, a third of the Party membership were supposedly on the FBI payroll, so it is not too clear what conclusions you should draw from that….

      • Realist
        August 3, 2017 at 09:07

        Money buys free speech in America. It also shuts it down, apparently with great finality.

    • aquadraht
      August 2, 2017 at 14:54

      I watched out for a possibility to watch or download the film. There are only a handful of dubious sites requesting registration who claim to have the film. Not surprisingly, a youtube version has been deleted. Did you really believe that Google provides sort of samisdat? Maybe your views are bit naive. If Browder succeeds in threatening the European Parliament, arte and several other TV providers, it is doubtful that any smaller company or site is taking the risk. Ok, maybe the film can be distributed or downloaded via darknet channels somehow. In fact, Google seems to block any information pointing at such sources.

      • August 2, 2017 at 19:52

        Google has been using filters for “non-aligned” information for some time already

    • August 2, 2017 at 15:09

      The broadcasters have contributed financially and if the producer (me) just released the film on YouTube etc, it would be in breach of all agreements and lead to financial ruin for the production company.

      • Amrita Whitman
        August 2, 2017 at 16:16

        When can we purchase dvds? This sounds like a film we all need to watch ASAP!!

        • Litchfield
          August 2, 2017 at 16:55

          Agree! Make the DVD available via ConsortiumNews.

      • Seer
        August 2, 2017 at 22:06

        At what point does the message mean more than the $$?

        How in the heck are the “broadcasters” going to recoup their “investment” if this never see the light of day?

        Do a deal with Consortium News.

    • Kiza
      August 2, 2017 at 18:50

      Gee guys, now I understand why the producers of the video material are so desperate. A whole generation has gotten used to FREE, that is pirated movies, docos and everything else which can be produced only for good money. You desperately need a bright spark in your brains which will tell you that what is free is almost certainly a propaganda that somebody already paid for (unless it is a crowd-funded cheap production). As to movies, when people expect to get expensive productions for free online then they get US Gov and CIA sponsored garbage such as Argo, Hurt Locker, ZeroDarkThirty, American Sniper etc. In this generation, it appears that piracy has become standard.

      It is fascinating that some morons would suggest a solution in a free distribution of a documentary online, as if the producer and the director can eat their online popularity. Or are you guys CIA trolls trying to discredit this doco? If it were sponsored by the Russian government, as Browder and Soros claim, then it would have been on the Internet for free long time ago.

      • Sam F
        August 2, 2017 at 20:14

        Part of the problem is the common assumption that information ought to be free, when in fact someone has to produce it. This has resulted in internet piracy of “free” (stolen) digital books, music, and presumably documentaries. A fair royalty plus overhead ($1-$3) would be fair to producers, but what is free is mostly stolen material, public-domain stuff, propaganda, and junk.

      • Roger
        August 3, 2017 at 00:34

        Yeah, because it’s impossible for humans to be motivated by anything but the profit motive..
        Arcane business-models and socio-economic systems must last forever coz Muh grandfathers “Capitalism”!.
        Can we get some UBI up in this bitch please?!

        • Kiza
          August 3, 2017 at 07:24

          And you work for free, in the most modern business model and socio-economic system? And the director and the producer will eat your online clicks.

      • aquadraht
        August 3, 2017 at 05:27

        I agree that such a production needs to earn at least the production cost and enough surplus to earn the producers a living. It is clear that this cannot be achieved by pirated copies on the net. Anyway, a low density copy available would not hinder people to, say, purchase a better quality blue ray or DVD, and possibly motivate small local cinemas etc. to lease a copy for public screening. At the moment, the producers seem not to earn any money from their work – bad for them -, and the public is shielded from the important information contained in the documentary – bad for everybody. I understood Adrian’s rant as a proposal to overcome that deadlock.

      • Skip Scott
        August 3, 2017 at 08:32

        Hi Kiza-

        I sure understand that everyone needs to make a living, and that the internet subverted some of the ways artists make their money. But considering the legal threat they are now under, I think the producer and director will have to get creative about how to distribute the film and hopefully still make some money. They would probably have to have some really deep pockets to go head to head with Browder. Also, at this point, I think the message is of greater importance than any fiduciary interest. We are heading towards WWIII because of the power wielded by Browder and his ilk. If Nekrasov became famous for outing this crook, maybe he could make a lot of money somewhere down the line. It sure is a puzzle, and I wish I had the answer. But I don’t think we could overstate the importance of getting the film out there at this point, given current world affairs.

    • CitizenOne
      August 2, 2017 at 20:29

      Nah,

      If it’s any good and made by professionals and especially if it cost money to make, they have to take it commercial to get their return. Nobody is going to give a dime to make it if they see no return. Either that or it’s a labor of love and everyone thinks your baby is ugly.

      They at least would want it to be shown in some commercial theaters.

      Besides, poking the bear is fun. Make the man refuse to show your movie just to prove the point that it is all a rigged game. Then make a publicity stunt out of the censorship, win the love and admiration of Trump whereupon he will fondle them, grab them by their (redacted) and ride off into the sunset.

    • fudmier
      August 3, 2017 at 12:22

      Years ago, on my frequent trips to hot balmy Florida in my parents air conditioned deficient car, about every 80 miles or so, would appear staked in the ground, road side signs that said .. just ahead.. the next sign and the next sign and the next sign until you finally arrived at the last of the signs, which last sign, had written on its face, by implication now that we have your attention we will tell you its about “”Burma Shave””. Later in graduate school, I learned this marketing method had a label.. audience preconditioning..

    • William
      August 5, 2017 at 12:28

      Are you kidding me? You think Youtube isn’t censored? And heavily so. That is a well-known fact and topic of much open discussion. Youtube is a corporation like any other, sensitive to criticism and its share price.

  67. Mild-ly Facetious
    August 2, 2017 at 11:53

    Putin fights back?
    (“)

    Mazda given special terms to open engine factory in Russia

    Analyst suggests the move is ‘reputational’ on the part of the Russian government, with the aim of creating a better investment climate

    By INGA DENEZH
    AUGUST 2, 2017

    The Russian government has decided to expand a special economic zone in its Far Eastern region’s Primorskye Krai territory to secure the first investment by Japan’s Mazda into an engine plant in the country.

    The central government has passed legislation to alter the boundaries of the zone to include the grounds of the factory complex of OOO MazdaSollers Manufacturing Rus, a joint venture between the Japanese carmaker and domestic producer PAO Sollers. This will stimulate the venture to expand production, including through Mazda’s first move to manufacture engines locally.

    Investment in the expansion, which will focus on the SkyActiv-G family of engines will be in the region of US$50 million.

    “Getting residence status at a special economic zone will significantly cut the time needed to organize the manufacture of engines in the Vladivostok area. In addition, the advantages of such an economic status allow us and the Japanese partners to plan further investments to launch production of new models and also to upgrade factory facilities,” PAO Sollers general director Vadim Shvetsov told the media.

    The joint venture plans to produce 50,000 engines a year. In addition, the partners are considering a roll-out of updated versions of the Mazda 6 and Mazda CX-5 models at the Russian facility.

    Russian government officials told Asia Times that this will be the first time Mazda has set up engine production in Russia.

    The factory expansion is due to be completed in 2018 and it is expected that most of the output will be for export.

    “Once it’s a member of the special economic zone, the company effectively becomes a partner of the state,” Maxim Krivelevich, from the School of Economics and Management of the Far Eastern Federal University, told Asia Times.

    “It opens the door to receive benefits, as well as all information and services. This gives investors in the Far East an equal opportunity to compete in what is one of the largest markets globally.

    And what is the upside for Russia? This is much more complicated. In theory, Russia receives tax from factory worker wages, but the economic zone has preferential tax laws which give substantial tax breaks.”

    “This is all ‘tomorrow’s money.’ This is money that will come later through the creation of a better investment climate”

    Workers at a plant outside the zone might have 30% of their salaries go to the state pension fund and other social payments. For staff at facilities inside the zone, that figure is just 7.6%, according to Krivelevich. In this sense, Russia’s gain is more ‘reputational’ in terms of the investment community, he said. “This is all ‘tomorrow’s money.’ This is money that will come later through the creation of a better investment climate.”

    http://www.atimes.com

    • Zim
      August 2, 2017 at 15:26

      Interesting. Ford owns 40% of Mazda IIRC.

      • Joe Tedesky
        August 2, 2017 at 15:51

        I think it was 1929 when Henry Ford went to Russia, and set up the Gorky car manufacturing plant….history does repeat it self.

        • Bob Van Noy
          August 3, 2017 at 15:56

          It seems Joe, that Ford has profited well from War. See link.
          http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4368

          • Joe Tedesky
            August 3, 2017 at 19:55

            An opportunist always sees opportunity.

    • Joe Tedesky
      August 2, 2017 at 15:50

      Putin is smart, because while his Western counterparts are figuring out who to blow up next, Vladimir Putin is playing with the fundamentals of running a country, and encouraging business investment.

      • Joanne Yarwood
        August 3, 2017 at 12:19

        Look like that to me in everything I have researched

    • CitizenOne
      August 2, 2017 at 20:15

      Russia to offer Premium Election Hacking Service Industry to other Corrupt Nations.

      Vladimir Putin announced the launch of the new Election Hacking Service as a part of a complete package of services that Russia can offer to any nation with a corrupt leadership.

      For the right fee, Russian Election Hacking Services include:

      Express Service:

      A light and fast mobile hacking tool for those engaged in drive by hacks or smaller national elections

      Continued subscribership:

      For no additional cost, you may elect to make Russia’s services available on a permanent basis with Putins auto renew feature. This is perfect for those lazy leaders who hate to have to remember important dates and sometimes run into hacking service interruptions at critical times.

      Fall season discounts:

      After major elections, Russia’s exclusive hacking services which command a hefty price in the months leading up to a major election fall dramatically and are easily affordable for the less well qualified subscribers.. These are the perfect opportunities for those who would not ordinarily be able to afford the premium tier of Russia’s Election Hacking Services to be able to entertain some of the most expensive offerings at steep discount rates. Such services include providing top level Russian political players to perform key post election fake event staging and conducting generally unethical super secret meetings with just about anybody to undermine the politician of your choice. We like to call this the sore loser post election hacking deal. “If you can’t beat em, make em look bad” as Russian Hacking Services founder Boris Yeltsin used to say before he unfortunately was “hacked”.

      Time is limited and this tremendous offer won’t last long. Soon, the USA is planning to make a hostile takeover bid which could cause temporary service disruptions. These offers are subject to world political events and past performance is not a an indicator of future performance. Russia is not responsible for the content of this ad.

      • Herman
        August 3, 2017 at 08:51

        Citizen One, very, very funny. “if you can’t beat , make ’em look bad’.’em. The articles in Consortium are great, the comments often even better.

      • Realist
        August 3, 2017 at 09:00

        Are you mocking your American congress and our patriotic American media?

        If so, good for you.

      • GMC
        August 3, 2017 at 10:09

        I live in Russia – This made me laugh – and reminded me of Geo Carlin !

        • CitizenOne
          August 3, 2017 at 19:41

          Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from sadness. All worry all the time is a bad scene. It is hard when everything I see and hear makes me wonder what kind of cluster f*!k situation we in. The USA is through the looking glass in Alice’s Wonderland where everybody actually believes what they read and see in the magazines and the TV and radio is all telling truth. They can’t remember from 24 hours ago what was said and look confused if you remind them it is ridiculous to have James Comey testify about Russia’s alleged election hacking when Mr. Comey is not questioned about his own very public and obvious election hacking which the DOJ branded as election hacking before he did it as a warning.

          This concept of “thinking about it” is lost on way too many people in the USA. They just buy it hook line and sinker. Everyone I know all believe it. I tell myself it is just because they hate Trump. Perhaps it is true people latch onto any excuse but I sure would not want these people in the jury box at my trial.

          We sure have a lot of unthinking folks.

      • Typingperson
        August 5, 2017 at 13:19

        Brilliant! I love the “post-election sore loser hacking deal”! If you can’t successfully hack the election yourself on the front-end (looking at you, DNC and Hillary), then there’s always post-election coup attempts!

        And who says this country isn’t great? Entrepreneurial hacking efforts for all–at market-driven rates, of course.

      • August 11, 2017 at 21:00

        So wonderful to hear all these accusations…. The more the scarier.. Us Americans can be proud to cum from a flawless democracy, and LSD can make pigs fly. Keep up the funny stories CitizenOne. In time like these any laughs are good ones…

  68. Brad Owen
    August 2, 2017 at 11:46

    William Browder, son of Earl Browder, former head of the Communist Party in USA, obviously now in league with the “smash & grab”, kleptocratic Oligarchs in Russia (former commissars), whom Putin successfully checkmated and drove into a corner, and now a “hedge fund hyena” (as Webster G. Tarpley calls these predators preying upon the 99%ers) is only worth breaking as soon as Giass-Steagall is re-instated and orderly bankruptcy re-organizing proceeds. This P.O.S. will probably end his days in jail, along with a lot of other Wall Street criminals. Move on to the next story.

    • j. D. D.
      August 2, 2017 at 14:03

      That really depends on the future of the Russiagate cup against the President, and if he takes up the challenge to the “hacking” hoax offered him by V.I.P.S. on this website. If not, what Mr. Perry refers to as “the new Cold War,” might heat up in a hurry.

    • Chet Roman
      August 11, 2017 at 10:12

      Yes, Browder was part of the western Kosher Nostra in Russia in the 1990’s that participated in stripping Russia of its assets along with a few oligarchs. And now he is using his tribal connections in the U.S. to perpetuate his propaganda about the anti-Kremlin Magnitsky narrative and has quite effectively censored what Americans can see and hear, much like AIPAC’s recent attack (law-fare) on Americans right to free speech (anti-BDS legislation).

      One quibble on your comment, Browder’s father was Felix Browder, a mathematician. His grandfather was a leader in the American Communist Party.

      • August 11, 2017 at 13:43

        Absolutely!
        Well said. The shysters all support each other!

  69. August 2, 2017 at 11:45

    Orwellian. Americans, and it looks like the citizens of the Western World are being kept like mushrooms, fertilized with bullshit. I would guess that it was ever thus. I am 76 years old and grew up in Canada. Back in the 50s I think it was even worse, because there was no access to contrary news sources such as Consortium News.

    • Erik G
      August 2, 2017 at 12:37

      It is important that we have this exposure of political censorship by the mass media, so determined to prevent the public from hearing alternative views. Regardless of the truth, we must hear all sides.

      Another important view into corruption of our mass media and government. Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
      https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
      While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.

      • August 2, 2017 at 14:30

        Let’s all sign Erik’s petition. We know The N.Y. Times isn’t going to change it’s editor, but here’s a chance to show opposition, numbers matter!

        • ranney
          August 2, 2017 at 16:51

          I just did sign it, and I hope everyone reading the comments will too.

          • August 11, 2017 at 17:35

            Feckless acting out, in my view…. What about something real, like getting this documentary out here in America for all to see and judge for themselves… Maybe use these narrative to raise funds to out the lies….!!!!!!

      • Erik G
        August 2, 2017 at 19:58

        Speaking of Mr. Parry, ZeroHedge has a story today “Newly Unearthed CIA Memo: Media Are The ‘Principal Villains'” that notes

        “a 1997 classified internal CIA study called, Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and the Drug Conspiracy Story. The now declassified paper… details the steps the CIA went through to crush California journalist Gary Webb’s investigative series exposing CIA-Nicaraguan Contra drug running. The CIA report boasted of ‘a ground base of already productive relations with journalists” which was levereged to quell “a genuine public relations crisis.’ It also admitted to using proxies and friendly journalists in major news rooms to attack both Gary Webb and his investigative story.”

        Link to story will follow.

          • Litchfield
            August 2, 2017 at 21:48

            Well, this is exactly the situation that Udo Ultkoffe described in his book and the English translation of which is being suppressed. How the CIA buys journalists and crushes the ones it doesn’t like. Such as Gary Webb and Michael Hastings. Ultkoffe also died young (56) but had had a history of heart disease. So . . .

            Does anyone seriously believe that Gary Webb died of natural causes? The CIA is really no better than ISIS. Silencing those who use th e media to push back against The Program. As shown in City of Ghosts. Review here:
            https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/movies/city-of-ghosts-review.html.

          • Bob Van Noy
            August 3, 2017 at 08:53

            Litchfield, I live very near where Gary Webb was killed and I don’t believe it.

            By the way, he supposedly committed suicide by shooting himself Twice in the head. Those of us that have been following political assassinations for years, have heard this scenario so many-times that it has become a common thing…
            ”Forward and to the right”. Dan Rather reporting on JFK.

    • Jessejean
      August 2, 2017 at 23:29

      Dan–agreed. And I grew up in Minnesota. But I’m only 72.?

    • fudmier
      August 3, 2017 at 11:54

      Mr. Kuhn> I think you are correct about that .. consider this little gem..
      very interesting the story about the RMS Titantic and the deaths of Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus and Jacob Astor, who were allowed to die on the RMS Titanic sunk on 12 April 1912; while those not opposed to the creation of the Federal Reserve and the entry of USA into WWI, suddenly canceled their reservations and survived. http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2347.htm

      Is beginning to look like perl Harbor was a predecessor to 9/11..

      • August 3, 2017 at 17:23

        Less well known is that command allowed the USA Pacific air force to be bombed as sitting ducks shortly after Pear Harbor.

        See old copy of US History magazine.

    • Hank
      August 4, 2017 at 12:53

      Thumbs UP

    • Litchfield
      August 6, 2017 at 22:28

      A lot more detail on Browder and the film, here:
      http://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-good-fortune-of-mr-browder/

Comments are closed.