Putin's Speech at the UN: A much expected, advertised and supposedly "great historic speech" turned into "May I sit here, good Sir?" (Yuri Barmin) or "May I fall back in, please?"

The Russian people deserve better and so does the heroic struggle of the Russians against the Banderite fascists in Ukraine. More and more the Kremlin is letting us know that oligarchy too, especially corrupt one, can't jump over its shadow and become overnight someone else or what is not and never meant to be anything but. Writing this while having the immortal faces and memory of Mozgovoy, Bednov and Ischenko in front me--the victims of this very oligarchy--in my mind--or the image of a Russian volunteer from Petersburg recorded on one of Anna News videos who then died near Lugansk, it is too painful to see and observe much of what has the promise of the Russian Spring, Russia's birth and Novorosssiya was reduced to. Therefore in presenting Putin's and Obama's speeches at the UN in a nutshell, I will limit myself mainly just to my previous tweets.

So here are the highlights of these two speeches and their signals showing the disposition of the two leaders at this critical juncture:

 

Дмитрий Смирнов @dimsmirnov175:

Места украинской делегации (прямо перед трибуной) пусты. Порошенко и Ко ушли из зала перед выступлением Путина

The Ukrainian delegation, including Poroshenko, demonstratively left the UN Assembly to boycott Putin’s speech.

Highlights from Putin’s speech:

• The UN emerged on the basis of the defeat of Nazism. At the 70th anniversary, Putin bypassed this and stressed importance of “procedures.”
• At 70th anniversary of defeat of Nazism, Putin chose instead to decry the USSR, one of UN founders, as “tragic experiment which led to degradation.” Otherwise, Putin’s kick and jab at the USSR just shows how he himself treats the oath which he undoubtedly swore to the USSR. Also a ritual “politically correct” statement of an apparatchik who became a liberal and wised up enough to say what the West might want to hear, thus scoring two or three fictitious brownie points.
• Putin: “The USSR fell apart, and NATO keeps expanding.” Quite sure that NATO did its best to make the former happen, while avoiding USSR fate—and both (the disintegration of the USSR and NATO expansion) much helped by the progressively corrupt KGB, which went on to produce some of the “finest” oligarchs (quid pro quo).
• Putin made sure to avoid any mention of fascism (not to mention Nazism or Banderism) in Ukraine—whatsoever. At all. But he tried briefly to link Muslim fundamentalists to Nazis.
• Putin’s quotable, golden statement from his UN speech: “You never know who is manipulating whom.” I do believe that this might be applicable to Putin himself. Alas.
• Putin’s message to the heroically struggling people of Donbass and Ukraine: Minsk, Minsk, and nothing but Minsk. Bye.
• Minsk (surrender to Banderite regime) is how we “ensure our respect for the choice of the people of EASTERN Donbass.” Immoral hypocrisy at its basest. (more like a south-east corner of Donbass provided that we name this actually Western Donbass to be Eastern—Donbass was split among Ukraine and Russia under the USSR)
• Putin: Only Minsk ensures that Ukraine (now the Nazi state) will be “civilized.” Not at all.
• Only Minsk is the only possible solution to the war in Donbass. Translation: Moscow refuses to think of any options but DLPR return to junta. Poverty or rather utter bankruptcy in leadership, strategy, and thinking.
• Putin spent barely 2 minutes of his speech on Ukraine out of 23 minutes of talking. Two minutes on what concerns the plight of the millions of the Russians both in Ukraine and Russia and what directly impacts Russia’s own existence, security and very survival …
• Instead of Russia’s “resurgent,” we’ve got Putin’s (Russian oligarchy’s) Walk to Canossa reloaded.
• It does look to me that the much heralded/expected Putin’s speech was at the last hour replaced with a much toned-down, hollow version. For just the other day Peskov assured us that Putin was working on this 23-minute speech the whole month. The impression is that Washington managed to convince Putin to trim his ambition and to scale-down his speech—as if the speech to be made or which should have been made did not pass the US standards of the permissible.

• Instead of the advertised 50-60 minute speech, Putin spoke just 23 minutes versus Obama’s 43. Pecking order re-affirmed. All too plainly and all too symbolically. For everyone to see.
• Thus instead of delivering a historic speech of a statesman, Putin made a statement worthy of a bureaucrat or political technocrat hell bent on rejoining the fold. And trying.

Highlights from Obama’s speech:

• Obama with a smile: Pacification of the ISIS-brutalized population in Syria requires a new leader and moving away from Bashar al-Assad!
• The Syrian war started because of the lack of democracy there! -- Since when do al Qaeda and ISIS fight and kill for democracy?
• ISIS extremism, its cult of perpetual warfare “infects too many of OUR young people” 28:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6d0Ngykh60 …
• “After some much bloodshed there can’t be return to the previous status quo.” Speaking of Ukraine. Oh, of Syria.
• “Our military is necessary for resolving the situation in Syria.”
• Our determination has been demonstrated by the way in which we have pursued al Qaeda for a decade-so that it is now an army and state.
• Iran’s helping of Iraq and Syria against ISIS “endangers the whole region.”
•  “We will make sure that ISIS has no safe haven anywhere.” --- Just half of Iraq and half of Syria.
• “In Libya we should have and could have done more” of what we did there. Next time we might be “more effective.”
• Obama at the UN: Our Iraq War was “a hard learned lesson” in not succeeding.
• Obama’s example of how the system ought to be working: such as when Russia and China joined the US and West in punishing Iran.
• Obama declared that Russia has not engaged in “true diplomacy” and didn’t ensure that her interests in Ukraine were protected. Quite true. In fact. Alas.
• Obama: Thanks to our sanctions, more Russian capital (of Russian oligarchs) is fleeing to the West and so are smart people.
• Obama: International Law is a must and it is holy. And so I will never hesitate to use our military forces unilaterally ...

In Damascus cafes, “no one was paying attention to Obama speaking at UN on TV. They did not even turn on the sound.”

Александр Коц @sashakots: “На выступление Обамы никто внимания не обращает в Дамаске, идет без звука.”

21 retweets 13 favorites

70 years after WWII, in his UN speech, Polish President Duda blamed Poland’s defeat by Germany in WWII on the USSR. The USSR did it! So, at last, Poland achieved its own historical infamy. 

Still the main story of the day came through pictures—the pictures of the all too revealing body language of V. Putin too clearly contrasting with that of Obama. Symbolically and politically, this is a disaster. Putin’s claim to great leadership and stature might have sound here its swan song … no, sorry swans, some other bird would fit better … (already put upside down by his role in Minsk 1 and in signing Minsk 2, pursuing liberal economic policies even during the sanctions and the great danger to Russia, having someone so immoral and cynical like Surkov be in charge of the fate of Donbass and the Russians there, while having him served before effectively as Russia’s viceroy for internal politics, “culture,” ideology etc.).

Yury Barmin ‏@yurybarmin: “As if Putin is asking: “May I sit here, good Sir?”

A stern school principal has come face to face with a “rogue pupil.” This makes for an illustrative evolution from Yeltsin driving Bill (Clinton) to tears in October of 1995—right after cleansing the Serbs from Krajina—made here almost exactly ten years later and a bit more than a year after the Odessa Massacre of the pro-Russian citizens of Odessa, the “city-hero,” at the hands of the Ukrainian Nazis.  

Hate to say it but the photo shows who is here the Alfa Dog. Not Putin.

This is how and where one leader’s claim to bravery and chess master brilliance and genius ended. Too plain to see. Alas.

The Russian and US delegations happened to share adjoined rooms at the UN HQs today (a clear sign of ongoing passing of info back and forth and … also instructions?). Putin tried to behave today:

Дмитрий Смирнов @dimsmirnov175

“Случайно или нет, но комнаты США и России в ООН рядом. Где люди - наша, сейчас там начнется встреча Путина и Рухани.”