John Edwards part of CFR hit team against Vladimir Putin and a sovereign Russia

Excerpt:

... Freud might call it petroleum envy, but it's deeper than that.
> Putin has charted a course for social change that conflicts with
> basic tenets of neoliberalism, which are the principles which
> govern US foreign policy. He is not a member of the corporate-
> banking brotherhood which believes the wealth of the world should
> be divided among themselves regardless of the suffering or
> destruction it may cause. Putin's primary focus is Russia; Russia's
> welfare, Russia's sovereignty and Russia's place in the world. He
> is not a globalist.
>
> ... In the early years of his presidency, it was believed that
> Putin would comply with western demands and accept a subordinate
> role in the US-EU-Israel centric system. But that hasn't happened.
> Putin has stubbornly defended Russian independence and resisted
> integration into the prevailing system.
>
> ... John Edwards and Jack Kemp were appointed to lead a CFR task
> force which concocted the pretext for an all-out assault on the
> Putin. This is where the idea that Putin is "rolling back
> democracy" began. In their article "Russia's Wrong Direction",
> Edwards and Kemp state that a "strategic partnership" with Russia
> is no longer possible. They claim that the government has become
> increasingly authoritarian and that the society is growing less
> "open and pluralistic".
>
> Kemp and Edwards provided the ideological foundation upon which the
> entire public relations campaign against Putin has been built. And
> it is quite an impressive campaign. A Google News search shows
> roughly 1,400 articles from the various news services on Putin.
> Virtually all of them contain exactly the same rhetoric, the same
> buzzwords, the same spurious claims, the same slanders. It is
> impossible to find even one article out of 1,400 that diverges the
> slightest bit from the talking points which originated at the
> Council on foreign Relations.
>
> ... Putin's real crime is that he serves Russia's national
> interests rather than the interests of global Capital.
>
> ... In the US, Kasparov has become the focal point of the Russian
> elections - the primary source of "unbiased" analysis. NPR
> reiterates his spurious claims every half hour. The other news
> agencies are no better. He has become the distorted lens through
> which Americans view Russian democracy. This says a lot more about
> the choke-hold the neocons still have on the media rather than
> anything objective about Russia.


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