‘A Determined Effort to Undermine Russia’

Retired Australian diplomat Tony Kevin, in conversation with former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, says the West is unnecessarily determined to undermine Russia.

At an event last week in Sydney, Kevin and Carr discussed how the West, led by the United States, has been on an aggressive campaign to destabilize Russia, without cause.

When Kevin said he returned to Russia after more than 40 years in 2016 he realized he “had to take sides” in the U.S.-Russia standoff when all Nato countries boycotted the Moscow celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

“I had to take a moral position that it is not right for the West to be ganging up on Russia,” Kevin says in his conversation with the former Australian foreign minister. 

The New Cold War can traced back to a broken promise made to Moscow on Nato expansion eastward. “London and Washington are orchestrating a disinformation” campaign today against Russia, as the New Cold War has heated up over Syria, Ukraine, NATO troops on Russia’s borders and Russiagate.

Watch the hour-long in depth discussion which was filmed and produced by Consortium News’ CN Live! Executive Producer Cathy Vogan. 

20 comments for “‘A Determined Effort to Undermine Russia’

  1. Tom Culpeper
    December 11, 2019 at 16:03

    Putin & the Russian citizenry play chess on this 3-dimensional world.! The Americas and their inane elites attempt checkers on their flat Earth . Pity, some such as Noam Chomsky are admirable world citizens..! Pity again.! WE will miss men of this honest calibre and down- to-earth intelligence. Bob Carr is of this cohort.

  2. Eugenie Basile
    December 10, 2019 at 03:36

    The ‘Russia did it’ mantra is a gift for the powers in the Kremlin. It rallies most Russians behind their leaders because they are proud of their country and don’t accept the West’s moral hypocrite grandstanding.
    Just recently the WADA proclaimed sporting ban against Russia is a perfect example. It excludes all Russian athletes because they happen to represent their country while U.S. athletes who have been caught cheating in the past are allowed to participate .

  3. December 10, 2019 at 00:30

    It is very encouraging to know there are good people like Mr. Tony Kevin and Mr. Bob Carr alive and sharing their powerful wisdom at this dangerous historical point on planet Earth. Mr. Kevin and Mr. Carr’s immensely important and courageously honest discussion should become – immediately, and for many years to come – required study in university classrooms and government halls around this world.

    Peace.

  4. ElderD
    December 9, 2019 at 15:03

    Tony’s (especially!) and Bob’s sane and sensible view of this dangerous and destructive state of affairs deserve the widest possible distribution and attention.

  5. George McGlynn
    December 9, 2019 at 13:27

    A quarter century has passed since the fall of the Soviet Union, and little has changed. Cold War patterns of thinking about Russia show no sign of weakening in America. The further we distance ourselves from the end of the Cold War, the closer we come to its revival. Hostility to Russia is the oldest continuous foreign policy tradition in the United States. It is now so much of a part of America’s identity that it is unlikely to be ever cured.

  6. December 9, 2019 at 10:45

    It is a dangerous miscalculation to think the “New Cold War” will end like the first. Russia (the USSR) had a buffer zone then, it doesn’t today. For Moscow the coming war (world war) will be about survival. All that is left is the fall-back position of nuclear deterrence doctrine – annihilation. I don’t think western capitals see how perilous the situation is.

    • Lois Gagnon
      December 9, 2019 at 17:30

      I agree. Putin made it clear when he said the next war would not be fought inside Russia. The troglodytes in the West are unable to grasp not only what that means, but why he said it.

  7. AnneR
    December 9, 2019 at 07:48

    The latest efforts at attacking Russia via smear, allegation and Doublespeak have been, are via that US supported supposed oversight committee, WADA which has done what the US-UK wanted: banned Russia for four years from international sporting events including the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and World Cup (Football – soccer to Americans).

    Then there were allegations – of those “highly likely” (therefore one knows to be untrue and unadulterated propaganda to increase Russophobia) sort – about Russian hackers (always giving the impression that the “Kremlin” is behind itl) being the Labour Party’s source of the Tory party’s US-UK trade deal which would/will deliberately and finally destroy the NHS and replace it with (of course) US “health” insurance company profiteering.

    (Always the Tory intention from the NHS’s initiation in May of 1948; only its popularity among many Tory party supporters among the working and lower middle classes prevented them from a full-frontal killing off the NHS; the Snatcher’s government began the undermining, via installing a top-heavy bureaucratization, siphoning off a sizable proportion of the funds that would otherwise have gone to medical care, demanding that hospitals not “lose” money – a concept completely beyond the remit of the NHS as originally conceived and constructed and like exactions.)

    Then there are snide remarks about the meeting today concerning the Ukrainian Azov (Neo-Nazi) attacks on the Donbass (NOT how either the BBC or NPR speaks of this of course) in France. This struggle, between the Russian-speaking Donbass peoples and the neo-Nazis of western Ukraine, has killed many thousands of people (most likely mostly those of the Donbass). The Donbass fighters are spoken of as “Russian-supported” in an attempt to deny them and the reasons for their struggle *any* legitimacy (meanwhile the support for the neo-Nazis goes unmentioned, leaving the listener with the impression that they are the Ukrainian military, thus legitimately fighting a foreign funded and manned insurgency).

    Someone even suggested that President Putin needed to be diplomatic. Really? From what I’ve read the man is the most diplomatic and intelligent politician (not just political leader) along with Xi Jinping and the Iranian government that exist on the world stage. None of them are hubristic, solipsistic, eager beaver killers of peoples in other countries. Unlike their western “world” political counterparts.

  8. Jeff Harrison
    December 8, 2019 at 18:30

    Mad Dog Mattis spoke the truth when he said that an opponent wasn’t defeated until they agreed they were defeated. The US merely assumed that Russia agreed that they were defeated and are doubling down when they now suddenly realize that Russia never said any such thing. St. Ronnie’s whole thing back in the 80’s was to outspend Russia militarily and it worked well. We’re trying to do it again but Russia isn’t playing the same game this time and now it is the US that has a mountain of debt and Russia that doesn’t. SIPIRI tags US military spending at $650B and Russian military spending at $62B. But we know that the $650B number is bogus because it doesn’t include our in-violation-of-the-NNPT nuclear program which is in the energy department or our veteran’s expenses which are in HHS. I don’t know what’s missing from Russia’s $62B but I’ll bet they can sustain that a whole lot better than we can sustain our $650B and rising bill.

    • Antonio Costa
      December 9, 2019 at 13:17

      Good point regarding Russia’s downsizing the Soviet Union. From Gorbachev to Putin there was NEVER a surrender, intended in any way. The intent has been multilateral partnerships. For Russia the US/West won nothing at all except the opportunity to live and work in peace. (By the way this policy has a long Russian history.)

      They gave up the Warsaw Pact and America with our worthless “word” expanded NATO.

      The US foreign policy has lost even the semblance of sanity. Our naked aggression is clear as never before, a mad man throwing a global fit armed with megaton nuclear projectiles on trigger first strike alert. What could go wrong?

  9. nondimenticare
    December 8, 2019 at 15:56

    If, magically, Consortium News/CN Live! were a mass-distribution network/magazine (hence universally consulted), allowing the light in for the mass of the viewing and listening public, it could change the world – both an exalting and despairing thought.

  10. Lily
    December 8, 2019 at 09:52

    It is a great joy to listen to this conversation!

    I am really sick of the smearing of Russia done by the US and UK. The Skripal as well as the MH17 case are plain ridiculus. Anybody can see through these silly plants. US and UK obviously don’t feel obliged to respect any international rules any more. (The one person who is suffering most at the moment from the decline in respect is Julian Assange, an Australian citizen!)

    I wish people would have the courage to break away from the group pressure originated by a nation which has been started by killing more than 90% of the indigenous people in their country and since then has turned the worl into a very insecure place.

    Chapeau, Tony Kevin! Thanks to Bob Carr and Consortiums News.

    • Lily
      December 9, 2019 at 01:18

      It seems that some facts are beginning to be realized in the military department.

      www(dot)zerohedge(dot)com/geopolitical/pentagon-alarmed-russia-gaining-sympathy-among-us-troops

  11. Bob Van Noy
    December 8, 2019 at 09:22

    Simply, wonderful…

  12. OlyaPola
    December 8, 2019 at 07:43

    Words are catalysts of connotations and connotations are functions of expectations/framing..

    Some conflate cause with purpose thereby limiting perception of cause and purpose.

    Some understand that causation is interactive and in any lateral system the genesis of causation is difficult to determine.

    Some understand that evaluation is a function of purpose and that purpose can be evaluated through such portals into wonderlands such as “What is the “United States of America” and how is it facilitated?”

    As thumb-nailed in the comments section of the article Capitalism’s suicidal trajectory – OlyaPola
    December 6, 2019 at 07:46

    “From 1922 onwards the strategic purpose of the Soviet Union was to defend the Soviet Union not global domination, whereas the purpose of the “West” has always been global domination. “

    From 1922 onwards various tactics have been attempted by the “West” to facilitate their purpose, including attempts at “Orange revolution” in many areas which catalysed many lateral trajectories including the process of transcendence of the “Soviet Union” by the Russian Federation in the period from 1991 to 2005.

    Consequently Mr. Suslov’s observation re war of “The United States of America” can be extended into present times and hence no “New cold war” exists.

    ““What is the “United States of America”

    An initial step through the portal is that “The United States of America” is – a regime of social relations to facilitate its purpose – the social relations not being restricted to the “nation state” presently self designated “The United States of America” but including classes in other “nation states”.

    Consequently alternative purposes and social relations pose an existential threat to “The United States of America”; this being perceived of lesser significance in regard to “The Soviet Union” and greater in regard to the Russian Federation.

  13. December 8, 2019 at 07:30

    “At an event last week in Sydney, Kevin and Carr discussed how the West, led by the United States, has been on an aggressive campaign to destabilize Russia, without cause.”

    The American establishment’s problem with Russia is simply that Russia is the only country on earth capable of obliterating the United States. Not even China has yet reached that capacity.

    “Carthago delenda est”

    • Skip Scott
      December 9, 2019 at 06:13

      There is “cause.” Russia was our latest vassal under Yeltsin. Putin stopped the looting, and worked to benefit average Russian citizens. Just watch “The Magnitsky Act, behind the scenes” to know the “cause”.

  14. Bruno DP
    December 8, 2019 at 02:34

    The West is ganging up on Russia?

    Replace “West” by “United States of America”, and I will agree.

    Much of the West (i.e. Germany) has been dragged by force into damage control mode. The Magnitsky Act monster, the election interference hysteria, are just 2 crying examples met with shock and disbelief across the pond. The Fiona Hill testimony was a very telling moment for the inner workings of a self perpetuating logic.

    Russia is no lightweight by any means, and not always friendly.

    But it has regularly done the right thing in international conflicts which the Kremlin seems to understand better than all of “the Western” intelligence combined.

    • December 8, 2019 at 17:33

      I’m German, living in the US, and I agree with your comment. I especially love the last two sentences:

      “Russia is no lightweight by any means, and not always friendly.
      But it has regularly done the right thing in international conflicts which the Kremlin seems to understand better than all of “the Western” intelligence combined.”

    • Lily
      December 8, 2019 at 23:41

      Tony Kevin: ,Putin is a genius’.

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