Author: insomniacresurrected

Umland Says Nazis in Ukraine are Russian Disinformation

In a Russian language article by Andreas Umland I received in mail today, the latter tries to make the argument that the National Interest columnist, Ted Galen Carpenter is somehow wrong and under the influence of Russian propaganda when he says that Ukraine is a purveyor of radical nationalism. He brings forth the lame argument about electoral success of nationalist parties in Ukraine.

I have already debunked this argument on this blog. The issue boils down to Ukraine’s geography. Ukraine is the largest country in Europe, with a population around 30 million and many diverse regions. Only large oligarch funded projects score in such an environment. But there are outright radical nationalists in big oligarchical project too, and they are also embedded among the siloviks. They may not even be popular among the general population but they influence the cultural policy and have military units and guns. Radical nationalism, neonazism feels at home in Ukraine. And if the West does not keep an eye on Ukraine, sooner or later neonazis will bite back from Ukraine. Many researchers in the far right note the connection between neonazis in the West and their counterparts in Ukraine. Ukraine provides a safe haven for propaganda, merchandise sale and military training for whoever is willing to swear loyalty to Ukraine.

Read my Fashiks category for news on Nazis in Ukraine.

Russian Falcon?

There is a class of internet personalities (vloggers and bloggers) in Russia that in Russian are called охранители (ochraniteli, lit. “defenders”). They mostly put out patriotic and pro state content. I am a vatnik and I often watch this kind of content…

And for a while, this group of YouTube channels have put out content disparaging Elon Musk, belittling his achievements, and similar. When few channels and blogs do this in unison, it appears like an organised campaign. Entities with money these days do not shed resources on information campaigns because public opinion is everything. Morale must be maintained…

But if Elon Musk is doing it wrong, why then is Roskosmos copying his idea of partially reusable rockets to stay competitive with Musk’s Space X? Don’t get me wrong, I am totally for the proliferation of space technology, and believe that Roskosmos is on the right track with its decoupling from reliance on Kazakhstan’s Baykonur by building the Kosmodrom Vostochny, and now the development of reusable rockets. All power to them…