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Friday 11 March 2022

Corbyn And Putin Hypocrisy

Alongside the established narrative, which holds, more or less, that the UK is being jolly tough in its response to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his gangsterist régime in Moscow, despite the EU going further and faster with sanctioning those close to Putin, other sundry oligarchs and those majoring in the laundering of dirty money, goes the warning: thank goodness, we are told, that Jeremy Corbyn is no longer Labour leader.


The latter is also being pushed, to their shame, by some within the Labour Party, who waste no time in telling us how tough Keir Starner is being by agreeing rather a lot with alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. This new conventional wisdom may sound plausible. But it does not stand serious analysis.

We can usefully begin with Peter Oborne’s latest article for Middle East Eye, headlined “Russia-Ukraine war: Jeremy Corbyn was right all along about Putin and his oligarchs … Far from being pro-Putin, Corbyn warned against him when others didn’t”. Jezza prodded the Tories about all those Russian donations: he was sneered at as a result.


Considering the UK’s embrace of Putin in 2000, despite his overseeing a vicious and bloody war in Chechnya, he contrasts Tony Blair’s invitation to Vlad to visit the UK with one then back bencher’s warning: “Corbyn branded Putin’s visit ‘premature and inappropriate’”.

Oborne also notes “Corbyn has repeatedly criticised Putin’s human rights record with a consistency very few can match. Corbyn didn’t just raise concerns about human rights, which turned out to be fully justified today, he was also among the first serious critics of Russian money in British politics, long before the cause became fashionable”.


For which he was subjected to the lofty disdain of the likes of BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg. Oborne notes that “The Times reported the following day: ‘The Labour leader faced shouts of “shame” and “disgrace” when he mentioned Tory donations’ … Some of the criticisms were from the Labour side”. Compare and contrast with Bozo.

Our media class has hardly said boo about the PM’s visits plural to Yevgeny Lebedev’s Palazzo near Perugia, including at least one trip when Bozo was not accompanied by his security detail. No questions have been asked about his relationship with the son of a former KGB officer believed to be close to Putin. No joining of the dots has taken place on the subject of potential Kompromat. No criticism of the UK’s slow response to sanctioning.

Cui Bono, eh?

There has been no criticism of Labour figures like Peter Mandelson being close to the Lebedevs: the thought enters that our free and fearless press are keeping that one, and Mandelson’s past association with Jeffrey Epstein, securely in the safe, to be brought out and used against Labour if there is any chance of them winning a General Election.

And there in plain sight, also not given the scrutiny that he perhaps merits, is former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who yesterday evening used the platform given him by Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) to complain about Roman Abramovich having his UK assets “seized”. But Nige, as so often, was lying. Abramovich’s assets have been frozen. But good of him to show his loyalty.

Bozo potentially compromised, and Farage the new Lord Haw Haw. But Jezza done it.


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7 comments:

dedm said...

I agree with what you write here Tim, but I think the article is incomplete without also considering Corbyn's views on NATO. Presenting political issues as two dimensional can be just as much a weakness of the left as those on the right.

Gulliver said...

I seem to recall seeing Andrew Neil bare his backside over this issue before having the aforementioned backside handed to him in the replies: -

https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1499844396140879874

Anonymous said...

Oh I wouldn't worry, Tim.

The Quiff Quisling apologists will be along shortly. Someone has to try to explain away his utter shithousery.

But the Establishment will get rid of him soon enough should he try to show some guts instead of standard module House yahboo bullshit. If he has any guts that is.

If he is replaced my money's on Cooper. She has all the "attributes"...nominal "opposition", ultimately compliant, "good with media" etc etc ad nauseam. Just the Right type.

Ben Lapointe said...

The Left view of foreign policy: 1. don't mingle into internal affairs of other states unless using internationaly recognised organisations 2. Don't invite foreign politicians engaging in human right violations for tea. 3. Strict control and limits on political donations.

Right view of foreign policies: 1. Make up lies to bomb random foreign countries 2. Be pal with butchers, then turn against them, then bomb them (based on lies) then be pals again 3. Don't scrutinise at all who can give what to which politician.

Which one is more likely to keep us safe?

sigil said...

@dedm

NATO isn't beyond criticism. Corbyn's view isn't that we don't need defensive or military alliances, but rather that NATO has become a shield not for democracy but for capitalist interests like oil or the arms trade. As usual, as soon as he opens his mouth a thousand critics scream "traitorous Trot" so loudly that it becomes impossible to have any reasonable or nuanced discussion about it.

On the point of NATO/Ukraine/Russia, however, you might like to read https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1498491107902062592?cxt=HHwWgICsmaXu2sspAAAA, where you can see warnings about NATO's expansion from a number of experts, including Henry Kissinger, who no one could accuse of being a Trot.

Arnold said...

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1579329/brexit-news-uk-eu-sanctions-russia-ukraine-war

BRITAIN has sanctioned more than five times the amount of Russian bank assets than the EU, according to Government figures

Almost certainly a measure of how much Russian money laundering was done in London. Far more more Russian bank assets to sanction.

Anonymous said...

So....all that "Russian money laundering"....seems all along the useful idiots are in Canary Wharf and "The City"....among the "creators of wealth/risk takers/entrepreneurs/captains of industry". Read: gangsters and thieves.

Maybe "British/American democracy" will stop it all, Russian and otherwise.

But don't bet your mortgage-interest-scammed house on it.