Thomas Fazi
The Telegraph

Trump’s raid on Venezuela will drive even more countries away from the Western system

It has finally happened. After months of military build-up in the Caribbean, the illegal killing of more than a hundred people on Venezuelan fishing boats – many of them civilians – and the equally illegal seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers, the Trump administration has dramatically escalated its aggression against Venezuela.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, US forces launched a large-scale military attack on several sites, including the capital Caracas, that resulted in the capture – or more accurately, the kidnapping – of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

The groundwork for this operation has been laid for months. Chief among the justifications was the claim that Venezuela is a “narco-terrorist” state at the centre of the fentanyl trade responsible for the US overdose crisis, an accusation that has been thoroughly debunked.

Other allegations were quickly added to the mix: that the country hosts “Iran-backed terrorists” (another unsubstantiated claim) and, inevitably, the assertion that regime change is about bringing “democracy” and “freedom” to the Venezuelan people.

But ultimately, once all the layers of propaganda are stripped away, this attack boils down to just one thing: a completely unprovoked and blatantly illegal act of aggression against a country that posed no real threat to the United States.

The real objectives are transparent. First, to gain control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves – the largest in the world. Second, to topple a key ally of the non-Western geopolitical bloc aligned with China and Russia. In short, this is yet another regime-change war, from a president that campaigned precisely on putting an end to the US’s “forever wars”.

Esha Krishnaswamy
Thomas Fazi's Blog (Substack)

Opposition leader Péter Magyar’s agenda is clear: to fully reconcile with Brussels, including adopting the euro and severing ties with Russia. This would amount to national suicide

When he first came to power in 1998, prime minister Viktor Orbán was hailed as a hero by the West, which included receiving the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom for his commitment to democracy. He oversaw Hungary’s entrance into NATO. He also enacted austerity measures for the West. But all of that changed when he was re-elected in 2010.

Viktor Orbán’s first rift with the powers-that-be in Brussels and Washington came with the cancellation of the Central European University, an educational institution funded by the legendary George Soros. Soros and his many non-profits have worked to undermine sovereignty and interfere in elections worldwide. They funded many political parties and news media in Ukraine before the horrific events of Maidan in 2014.

In 2017, the Hungarian parliament passed a law stating that for foreign universities to operate in Hungary, they must also be a qualified institution in their home country and offer similar degree programmes. Of course, the Central European University, which offered a plethora of non-degree programmes, has no counterpart in the United States.

Later, China’s Fudan University took over the project, further enraging the powers-that-be in the West. At this time, a plethora of hysterical articles calling Orbán “non-democratic” and “authoritarian” started being published in a variety of Western newspapers such as the New York Times and Politico.

Thomas Fazi
UnHeard

Food. Churches. Chacha. This is what Georgia has long been known for. But now this ancient country, flanked by the mountains and the sea in the heart of the Caucasus, is the battleground in a new Not-So-Cold War. Due to its strategic location — it shares a large border with Russia to the north — the country has found itself caught up in the geopolitical power play between the West and Russia. And just like the Euromaidan revolt in Ukraine a decade ago, Georgia’s domestic politics have been framed in Nato circles as an existential fight. On one side sits the Georgian Dream, the allegedly pro-Russian ruling party, in power since 2012. On the other sits the opposition, avowedly pro-Western and pro-EU.

Little wonder, then, that last week’s parliamentary elections have turned into a global event. As predicted by the polls, Georgian Dream won by a wide margin, securing over 53% of the vote. The four major opposition coalitions together managed less than 40%. There is no reason to believe that the vote was fixed: despite raising some concerns about pressure on voters, biased media coverage and an environment of political polarisation, independent observers found no evidence of electoral fraud, let alone of Russian interference.

Yet that doesn’t fit the geopolitical mood. Desperate to finally shut Russia out from its near abroad, there seems to be no line Western politicians and their allies in Georgia are unwilling to cross to achieve their geopolitical aims — including ignoring basic liberal principles and even overturning the will of the people wholesale. Dovetailed with ominously similar moves across the Black Sea in Moldova, meanwhile, and Tbilisi may not be the last capital to suffer.

Thomas Fazi
Thomas Fazi'a Substack

"There is no freedom of speech whatsoever in Ukraine", says dissident journalist Vasyl Muravytskyi

Pascal Lottaz, Associate Professor for Neutrality Studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law and Hakubi Center, whose YouTube channel I strongly recommend you follow, has published a fascinating video interview with a Ukrainian dissident journalist in exile, Vasyl Muravytskyi.

Muravytskyi, who had written several critical reports of the post-Euromaidan Ukrainian regime and its handling of the civil war in Ukraine, was arrested in August 2017 by Ukrainian law enforcement and charged with high treason, threatening the territorial integrity of Ukraine, inciting hatred, and even participating in a terrorist organisation. He spent 11 months in prison.

During that time, he received support from several international human rights and journalist organisations. The Swiss human rights organisation Solidarity Network recognised him as a prisoner of conscience, while the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders in France demanded his release. Amnesty International also recognised him as a prisoner of conscience.