Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Patrick Lawrence continues his analysis of the overall situation, combining his knowledge of history with his keen observation of current events. Although at first glance, seemingly small events previously deemed “unnewsworthy” by the mainstream media may have been hard to connect, Patrick now presents a potential emerging trend taking shape and gaining momentum.

In addition to the lukewarm reception of Zelenskyy in Washington DC recently, there have been other indications of waning “Western” unity for continued support,

To quote,

“The mood elsewhere appears to be no brighter. That astonishing debacle in the Canadian Parliament—presenting an old  SS man as a hero because he fought the Soviets?—cannot have done Zelensky’s constituency in Canada any good. Across the pond there are signs of impatience as roughly eight million Ukrainian refugees settle in Europe, displaying little interest—and who can blame them?—in going home when the war is over. War or no, solidarity or no, the Poles have blocked imports of cheap Ukrainian wheat. There are signs of buyer’s remorse among the Finns a matter of months after their impulsive decision to join NATO. And now the Slovakians and their new leader’s alarming display of political and intellectual independence.” 

As always, we appreciate your thoughts and comments. We read all of them and although we may not respond, we are thankful for the time and consideration you give the subjects we select to share with you.

The Directors

Center for Citizen Initiatives

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SCHEERPOST

Patrick Lawrence: Depleted Ukrainium

October 5, 2023
What Comes After Failure?

By Patrick Lawrence 

You cannot name the last time you read anything about a parliamentary election in Slovakia, so I won’t bother asking. But you are reading about one this week, assuming you still follow mainstream media—if only to understand what you are supposed to think about one or another event, as against what has actually occurred. 

In results announced in Bratislava Sunday, a leftist party whose primary platform plank is opposition to the war in Ukraine won 23 percent of the vote. On Monday the Slovakian president, Zuzana Čaputová, formally asked Robert Fico, who leads the SMER party, to form a government. It looks like he will do so in a coalition with either Voice, a social-democratic party that took 15 percent of the vote, or with Progressive Slovakia, a liberal-centrist party that finished with 18 percent of the vote. 

Fico is an interesting figure. He has served as prime minister twice over the course of a decade, during which time he proved sufficiently European to bring Slovakia into the euro. To one or another extent, his likely coalition partners favor keeping Slovakia as a card-carrying member of the Western coalition supporting Ukraine. But they did not win the election: Fico did. And Fico is all business in his opposition to Slovakia’s support for the U.S. proxy war tearing Ukraine and its people to pieces. 

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

When the Prime Minister and entire Parliament of Canada stood to applaud and cheer a Nazi – a living, breathing veteran of the German SS in WWII – many of us were left speechless. How could this happen? Over one million Canadians – 10% of the population at the time – allied with Russia, the US and Great Britain, fought the deadly German machine in that war. Surely some members of the Canadian House of Commons today are aware of that, wouldn’t you think?

In the aftermath of that surreal episode, Aaron Maté at the Grayzone has posed a relevant question: if applauding an antique Nazi is repellant, how is it that arming, training and providing financial support to the modern-day Nazi equivalent is acceptable? Mainstream media told us for years what was going on, but did we care? Please see Aaron’s article below.

In response to the article by Andrew Korybko that we posted last week – “Jews, Poles & Russians Have United to Condemn Canada for Glorifying A Literal Nazi” – some of our readers were indifferent to the subject. Two well-known voices, one a Scot, the other American, make separate but equally eloquent cases for why we should take the matter seriously, very seriously indeed.

Please, as always, give us your thoughts on these matters. And please accept our apologies if we do not reply to each of your responses. We read all of them and we are truly thankful for the time and consideration you give the subjects we select to share with you.

The Directors

Center for Citizen Initiatives

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New Kontinent

Arming and Applauding

September 28, 2023

By Aaron Maté

Canada’s parliament has apologized for celebrating a Ukrainian veteran of a World War II-era Nazi military unit. Yet NATO’s current alliance with Ukrainian neo-Nazi units remains unscathed.

The Canadian government has apologized after giving a Ukrainian veteran of a World War II-era Nazi military unit a warm reception in parliament. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was honored following an address by visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the entire House of Commons in a standing ovation. Hunka, Parliamentary Speaker Anthony Rota declared, is a “Canadian hero” who “fought [for] Ukrainian independence against the Russians.”

Ottawa’s applauding lawmakers overlooked that the Russians, at that time, were Canadian allies against Hunka’s Nazi commanders. Hunker served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as SS Galichina, a unit of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing.

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For your consideration:

(1432) Neil Oliver: ‘…unforgivable!’ – YouTube
Patrick Lawrence: Tampering With History – scheerpost.com

Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues,

We all walk different paths in life and we all have the right to our own thoughts, opinions and beliefs.  There are times however when facts are indisputable and one example is the real history of WWII.

Included is an article reflecting the current attitude of some towards that history and the growing, united response to those who are attempting to distort and re-write that history.

Please let us know your comments.

Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues,

Gilbert Doctorow, a CCI trusted source, has summarized his opinion of the continued development and expansion of BRICS.  The new developments with BRICS plus create an opportunity for more multilateral cooperation away from the traditional western economies. This presents some good opportunities for Russia, China, and the entire global south.

Doctorow’s opinion is that the importance of BRICS including countries that are not naturally culturally or politically compatible is to be taken very seriously.   To quote Doctorow,

“The lesson here is one that the United States has not begun to learn: that inclusion of fractious nations is a far better way of arriving at policy moderation and coexistence than exclusion and creation of ‘pariah states’ through sanctions.”

We look forward to your comments.

Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Armageddon Newsletter

Is the expanded BRICS truly a new international institution or just the Nonaligned Bloc 2.0?

September 2, 2023

By Gilbert Doctorow 

In the week since the 15^th Summit meeting of BRICS in Johannesburg closed, there has been a lot of commentary in Western media directed at quashing the notion that something substantial occurred there which will further the emergence of a multipolar world, which had been the message of the five member states in their closing Declaration.

Some analysts have said that the addition of six new members taking effect on 1 January 2024 and plans for still greater enlargement next year to take in more of the 23 nations which had expressed an interest in joining amounts to little more than the recreation of the Bloc of Nonaligned Nations, which was a talking shop among Global South countries and little more during the Cold War. Other critics point out that there are serious contradictions between the national interests of the founding members India and China, and that this problem will arise between the new members, as for example between Iran and Saudi Arabia, so that the chances of BRICS arriving at consensus in policy matters and geopolitics in particular will be slim;  its weight on the world stage will be correspondingly small, they say.

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Dear CCI Friends and Colleagues,

Following our recent email, “Will the Fog Clear?”, we are sending another article by Edward Lozansky, the President of the American University in Moscow. This time, he and Matthew Ehret, Vice-President of the Rising Tide Foundation and Senior Fellow of the American University in Moscow, have teamed up to present their perspective of the emerging new normal of a multi-polar world.

New Kontinent is a Russian publication in existence for nearly fifty years (including its previous non-digital format) and we urge you to consider their stated mission,

“The mission of the New Kontinent (NewKontinent.org) is to publish the works by Western authors, whose opinions are more objective and balanced regarding Russia, U.S. – Russia, and East-West relations. The unprecedented anti-Russian campaign in Western political circles and the media gives the Russian citizens the impression that in such conditions no dialogue is possible, but this is not true. 

The current state of U.S.-Russia relations in no way reflects their real potential, nor does it serve the vital national interests of the two countries. In a world where the United States and Russia face so many common threats and challenges, they all too often view each other more as a foe than a friend. 

The roots of this animosity go back to the time of the Cold War with both countries being cast as inevitable opponents incapable of finding common ground on any issue. Even today, the United States and Russia are separated not only by history and culture, but also by their geopolitical goals and domestic priorities. Contributing to the problem is the shortage of direct communication between civil institutions and business groups interested in better relations between the two countries.

No two nations can ever achieve total harmony in their world views. This, however, should not prevent the United States and Russia from trying to develop a constructive working relationship. Closer U.S.-Russia cooperation is in the best interests of both countries and the history also provides ample evidence that a coordinated U.S-Russian response to world challenges tends to reduce tension and produce positive results.

Communication is a key factor here. In order to better U.S.-Russia relations, the quality of bilateral dialog must be dramatically improved. Political and civil institutions in both countries must have a solid platform to discuss issues, exchange opinions, and resolve outstanding problems.

With this in mind, we have created New Kontinent to promote political, economic, and civil cooperation between the United States and Russia. We are committed to fighting old stereotypes, building trust and identifying areas of common interest. And while we perfectly understand that bringing friendship and genuine cooperation into U.S.-Russia relations is a difficult goal, we believe it is realistic.”

We look forward to your comments.

Center for Citizen Initiatives

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New Kontinent

Make History or End It: An Existential Civilizational Choice

August 29, 2023

By Matthew Ehret and Edward Lozansky

It wasn’t long ago that every forward-thinking American politician understood that the unipolar world order under the U.S. leadership was the only game in town.

Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor and Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote the following in his 1997 Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives:

“How the United States both manipulates and accommodates the principal geostrategic players on the Eurasian chessboard and how it manages Eurasia’s key geopolitical pivots will be critical to the longevity and stability of America’s global primacy.”

Anyone resisting this new normal was considered a holdout of an obsolete past age and ignorant of the inevitable Darwinian forces of natural selection propelling humanity towards a long-awaited ‘end of history’ as outlined by neo-con academic Francis Fukuyama who is now mingling with the members of Ukrainian “Azov battalion” which up until recently was described in the U.S. Congress as a terrorist neo-Nazi organization.

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