Sie hat den Gang nach Moskau nicht gescheut, um die Toten zu ehren, die toten Kriegsopfer der Sowjetunion. Sie kam allein, am Nachabend der großen Siegesfeier, zu der sie selbstverständlich geladen, aber nicht erschienen war. Immerhin sie kam, anders als ihre westlichen 'Wertefreunde' der NATO-Kriegsgemeinschaft, die es vorzogen die Russen zu brüskieren. Griechenland und Serbien allein scherten aus dem westlichen Boykottbündnis aus und ließen sich die Reise nach Moskau nicht verbieten. Hut ab!
Frau Merkel wurde auch noch einen Tag nach den Feierlichkeiten zum 70. Jahrestages des Sieges über Faschismus und Kriegsende vom Präsidenten persönlich empfangen.
Die deutsche Kanzlerin kam in Schwarz und nutzte die Gelegenheit der Totenehrung, um die lebenden Russen zu beleidigen. Ohne die übliche diplomatische Rücksichtnahme beschuldigte sie das Volk, dem auch sie ihre Freiheit, ihre Sprachkenntnisse und ihr Physikdiplom letztlich verdankt, angesichts der Krim-Heimholung des "Verbrechertums". Sie sei aber gekommen, nicht um gegen die Russen sondern um mit ihnen zu arbeiten, sagte sie noch.
Der russische Staatspräsident und der internationale 'Sender Russia Today' (RT) blieben trotz alledem höflich. Sie lobten die Sprachgewandtheit der deutschen Kanzlerin, obwohl sie ihre böse Ansprache auf Deutsch hielt. Präsident Putin bestand allerdings - mit Verweis auf die im Westen so unterschiedlich bewerteten Vorgänge im Jemen und in der Ukraine - auf der Notwendigkeit mit gleicher Elle zu messen und die doppelten Standards abzulegen. Anders könne man in keinem Punkt zu einer Einigung kommen.
Die Feierlichkeiten in Moskau, die man auf RT hatte life verfolgen können, machten einen großartigen Eindruck: Millionen im ganzen großen Lande gedachten der über 27 Millionen verlorener Brüder und und Schwestern, deren Fotos man trug. Millionen feierten diesen historischen Tag aber auch mit der größten Militärparade aller Zeiten und zeigten Entschlossenheit solches nie mehr geschehen zu lassen. Freude über das gute Leben heute wurde auf vielfältige Weise demonstriert und Kampfbereitschaft in Form modernster Rüstung, die leider nötig dafür ist, das gute Leben zu schützen. Man ehrte die Geschichte und man lebt auf in der Gegenwart.
Ein grandioses Feuerwerk beendete den Feiertag in Moskau.
In der ganzen Welt aber nahmen an diesem Tag Menschen Teil an der Freude des Sieges über den Faschismus, an der Freude über das Ende eines entsetzlichen Krieges, den man verbannt wissen will.
Allein in Berlin Treptow konnte man einen wunderbaren Abglanz der heiteren Stimmung des Tages erleben. Zehntausend waren zum Sowjetischen Ehrenmal gepilgert, wo 7 000 Sowjetsoldaten bestattet sind, die in den letzten Kriegstagen für die Befreiung Berlins gefallen waren. Ein Blumenmeer zierte den großen Grabhügel, den Obelisken, der den jungen Sowjetsoldaten mit gerettetem Kind zeigt. Das Schwert zielt mit symbolträchtiger Geste nach unten .Schluss soll sein mit dem Kampf: Friede soll herrschen.
Die aus allen Weltenden angereisten Menschen, überwiegend Russen, musizierten, sangen, tanzten, feierten, teilten ihr Brot an diesem herrlichen Maitage. Die Götter meinten es gut am Wochenende, mögen die Menschen ihre Botschaft erfassen.
US going after Russia, Venezuela as it loses global influence – Maduro to RT
Washington is losing its weight in the international arena and this makes it target Russia and Venezuela, as well as attempt to curtail China’s growth, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told RT's Spanish-language channel in an exclusive interview.
In March, the US declared Venezuela a threat to its national security which is usually the first step in starting a US sanctions program. Maduro said the country found great support in Latin America after this attack, which forced Washington to backpedal on its pressure.
“All those countries stood against it even before the Summit of Americas started exactly a month ago and demanded that [US President] Barack Obama repeal the executive order that declared Venezuela a threat. It was very convincing,” he said. “President Obama realized that Venezuela was not alone, that it would have help and support. We were united in our multiplicity.”
The Venezuelan president, who continued a policy of opposing the influence of the US in Latin America that his predecessor Hugo Chavez started, believes that Washington is unnerved by the growth of political and economic power in countries it does not control.
“The US see they are losing influence and it makes them target countries like Russia to find a way to stop them. The US creates barriers and problems for such countries. They try to hamper their natural development. So they continue their attacks on peaceful countries like Venezuela and oppose the development of powerful nations like China,” he said.
According to Maduro, nations can successfully withstand American pressure with enough determination, as evidenced by the example of Cuba. After decades of economic blockade and sanctions, Washington sought reengagement with the Caribbean nation.
“Barack Obama was brave enough to admit in his December 17 speech that the blockade and oppression of Cuba failed. But he was also speaking from an imperialist point of view... Now they are trying to influence Cuba,” he said.
“I am certain that, sooner rather than later, the US will go the way the British empire did 70 years ago. It used to be a powerful empire that ruled entire regions of Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa for 300 years. They ruled the world. But then they had to adopt to new historic circumstances,” Maduro said. “We believe the same thing will happen to America and that they would have to go through a series of conflicts.”
Maduro is sure Europeans are hurting themselves again by alienating Russia, which now turns towards Asia for strategic partnership. The Venezuelan leader was among those who visited Russia this weekend to participate in V-Day commemorations.
“I arrived here with a good purpose, to be with the Russian people in this hour of great challenges. I am certain that peace will prevail,” Maduro told RT.
While leaders of countries like China, India, Vietnam, Serbia and Cuba came to Moscow for the occasion, many European leaders allied with the US chose to reject their invitations. Maduro says they succumbed to pettiness.
“It was probably a case of short-sightedness on the part of today's western leaders,” he said. “It's about conspiring and petty grudges… But humanity has enough strength and values not to allow this pettiness to win.”
The Venezuelan leader said similar notions were prevailing in Europe when the rise of politicians like Germany's Hitler, Italy's Mussolini and Spain's Franco was ignored in other nations in the hope that these anti-communist regimes would target the Soviet Union.
“Europe partially turned a blind eye and bet on the creation of an insane monster who would finish off the Soviet Union. It was apparent what would that bring on their heads. Hitler had been supported at the time by the bourgeoisie, by financiers in all of Europe, not just Germany, and even in the US... Humanity had to pay a great price for that bet,” he said.
The Russians certainly do not want another war, nor do the the peoples elsewhere:
About 12 million people around Russia and abroad have joined Victory Day parades to mark 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. Many of them gathered to march with the so-called “Immortal Regiment” to honor the veterans of the war. For videos and more click here: http://rt.com/news/257145-immortal-regiment-ww2-worldwide/
: May 09, 2015 12:57 Edited time: May 10, 2015 15:12
Immortal Regiment’ marches on: World celebrates Victory Day (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
The numbers were announced by one of the movement’s organizers, Nikolay Zemtsov.
Crowds of people carrying photographs of veterans who went through World War II have come to rally across Russia in a symbolic action known as the Immortal Regiment (Bessmertny Polk) march.
“They must march on victoriously at all times,”says the statement on the event’s web page.
Immortal Regiment inYaroslavl, Russia
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s Far East was among the first cities to host the march Saturday – about 3,000 people rallied there after a military parade. The march in the homeland of the Immortal Regiment, the city of Tomsk in Siberia, attracted some 30,000 participants.
Immortal Regiment inIrkutsk, Russia
The marches will be taking place all across Russia – from Vladivostok in the Far East to Kaliningrad, the country’s westernmost territory. In Moscow, over 500,000 people have taken part in a march on Red Square, according to organizers’ estimates.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has joined the march in Moscow. He was carrying a portrait of his father, who fought the Nazis during WWII.
“The Immortal Regiment brings together people whose grandparents fought from 1941 to 1945. Thus, we are honoring the memory of heroes who earned this hard-won victory,” the event’s organizer Nikolai Zemtsov said.
Immortal Regiment inUlan-Ude, Russia
Immortal Regiment inKazan, Russia
Another person behind the movement, Sergey Lapenkov, says the main aim of the march is to “immortalize family memory.”
He added: “The idea of the Immortal Regiment is to bring people together.” Immortal Regiment in Tomsk, Russia
This year, the Immortal Regiment action has also spread far beyond Russia. In the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, the march attracted some 2,000 participants. The event have also taken place in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk, Israel and Belarus’ Brest.
South Korea has joined Immortal Regiment action for the first time. New Yorkers staged their own event May 4, as about 100 people crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, carrying the photos of relatives who took part in WWII.
Immortal Regiment inBryansk, Russia
Victory Day celebrations worldwide
Seventy years ago, World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history, came to an end as Germany’s Instrument of Surrender came into force. Almost 80 percent of the world’s population were caught up in the six-year war, including all of the great powers, and a total of 55 million lives were lost in the conflict.
The Eastern Front, which was where the USSR clashed with Nazi Germany and its allies, stretched for 1,400 kilometers, from the Arctic Circle to Crimea. When it broke out in 1941, it became known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union - a name that became crucial for the history of the country, whose casualties amounted to least 27 million people killed in four years of fighting.
In Europe, commemorations started on Friday as Nazi Germany’s Instrument of Surrender came into force at 22:43
Ceremonies were held in the Polish port city of Gdansk, known as Danzig in German, where the first shots of the war were fired on September 1, 1939. A mass was held at the infamous Dachau concentration camp, where 32,000 people died according to official documents, but where thousands more were killed unofficially.
On Saturday, a rally will take place in Berlin, Germany, in Treptower Park where there will be a ceremony at the Soviet memorial. Madrid will see wreath laying ceremony in the cemetery of Fuencarral to the monument for the Soviet volunteers that participated in the Spanish Civil War.
Similar celebrations will take place in Sydney, Australia, as well as in the Americas.
Оn Friday, dozens of vintage airplanes flew over Washington, DC to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory in Europe in World War II. The air show, dubbed “The Arsenal of Democracy,”featured trainers, fighters and bombers used by the Allies.
A plane with a huge St. George’s Ribbon (3 meters wide and 75 meters long) will fly over Montreal, Canada.
‘Great Patriotic War was a battle for the future of all humanity’ – Putin
Military parades celebrating the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II were held all over Russia, from the country’s Far East to Crimea.
About 85,000 servicemen from the Russian Armed Forces were involved in Victory Day celebrations all over the country, the Defence Ministry press service said.
Military parades took place in 26 cities, while ceremonies devoted to Victory Day were held in more than 150 cities in Russia.
The biggest parade took place in Moscow’s Red Square, in a grand event involving the newest hardware at the army’s disposal.
Tigr and Kornet D armored vehicles, advanced BMD 4M and Rakushka vehicles were presented at the parade. Armata-based T-14 tanks, which will become the backbone of the Russian armored forces, also rolled across Red Square.
The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have seen Victory Day parades for the second time since reunification with Russia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin addressed the Victory Day parade in Moscow, welcoming the foreign guests who had arrived for the parade and thanking the representatives of the countries who fought against Nazism in WWII.
“The Great Patriotic War [the way Russians refer to the conflict between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany], was a battle for the future of all humanity,” said Putin.
"Our fathers and grandfathers went through enormous sufferings and losses. They worked to the point of exhaustion, strained to the limit and they fought without sparing their lives."
Putin observed a minute of silence for soldiers killed in battles, members of resistance movements, prisoners of deaths camps and all the civilians who perished to the hardships of sieges and wartime.
Another minute of silence will take in every Russian city at 18:55 local time (15:55 GMT when it comes to Moscow). This is the moment to remember incredible losses in Great Patriotic War as in Russia, as well as other countries of the Soviet Bloc, every single family was affected by the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Ayelet Shaked Justice Minister in his fourth government. In the most extremist right-wing government in Israeli history, Shaked is perhaps the most extreme. She has openly asserted “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and made genocidal calls for the destruction of the Palestinian nation, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”
HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) Party leader Naftali Bennett and his protégé Ayelet Shaked, Haaretz/Tomer Appelbaum,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appoint Ayelet Shaked as justice minister in his fourth government. Shaked is a Member of Knesset (MK) representing the far-right HaBayit HaYehudi (“Jewish Home”) party. She is known for her extreme, ultranationalist views.
During Israel’s summer 2014 attack on Gaza, MK Shaked essentially called for the genocide of Palestinians. In a Facebook post on July 1—a day before Israeli extremists kidnapped Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir and burned him alive—the lawmaker asserted that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and called for its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”
Her post consisted of an excerpt from an article by Uri Elitzur, the late right-wing journalist and leader of the Israeli settler movement, which seeks to colonize Palestinian land in contravention of international law. Elitzur also served as a speechwriter and advisor to Netanyahu.
Shaked later deleted the status, which garnered 1,000s of likes and shares, yet not before it was archived. The following is a translation of her post (courtesy of Dena Shunra):
The Palestinian people has declared war on us, and we must respond with war. Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation, no destruction of terror infrastructure, no targeted killings. Enough with the oblique references. This is a war. Words have meanings. This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started.
I don’t know why it’s so hard for us to define reality with the simple words that language puts at our disposal. Why do we have to make up a new name for the war every other week, just to avoid calling it by its name. What’s so horrifying about understanding that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy? Every war is between two peoples, and in every war the people who started the war, that whole people, is the enemy. A declaration of war is not a war crime. Responding with war certainly is not. Nor is the use of the word “war”, nor a clear definition who the enemy is. Au contraire: the morality of war (yes, there is such a thing) is founded on the assumption that there are wars in this world, and that war is not the normal state of things, and that in wars the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.
And the morality of war knows that it is not possible to refrain from hurting enemy civilians. It does not condemn the British air force, which bombed and totally destroyed the German city of Dresden, or the US planes that destroyed the cities of Poland and wrecked half of Budapest, places whose wretched residents had never done a thing to America, but which had to be destroyed in order to win the war against evil. The morals of war do not require that Russia be brought to trial, though it bombs and destroys towns and neighborhoods in Chechnya. It does not denounce the UN Peacekeeping Forces for killing hundreds of civilians in Angola, nor the NATO forces who bombed Milosevic’s Belgrade, a city with a million civilians, elderly, babies, women, and children. The morals of war accept as correct in principle, not only politically, what America has done in Afghanistan, including the massive bombing of populated places, including the creation of a refugee stream of hundreds of thousands of people who escaped the horrors of war, for thousands of whom there is no home to return to.
And in our war this is sevenfold more correct, because the enemy soldiers hide out among the population, and it is only through its support that they can fight. Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. Actors in the war are those who incite in mosques, who write the murderous curricula for schools, who give shelter, who provide vehicles, and all those who honor and give them their moral support. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.
A week before, Shaked wrote another status insisting:
This is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. The reality is that this is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people.
These remarks led Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to compare MK Shaked to Hitler. “If these words had been said by a Palestinian, the whole world would have denounced it,” he remarked.
Journalist Mira Bar-Hillel called the statements “the reason why I am on the brink of burning my Israeli passport.”
Shaked has also adamantly opposed signing any peace deals with Palestinians based on the pre-1967 borders, claiming that such a deal would constitute “national suicide.”
Netanyahu was re-elected on the promise that there would never be a Palestinian state.
The lawmaker has furthermore called for annexing parts of the West Bank, which have been under illegal Israeli military occupation since 1967.
Naftali Bennett, the leader of the HaBayit HaYehudi party of which Shaked is a prominent member, has himself drawn criticism for his similarly extreme, far-right views. In 2013, Bennett, as Minister of the Economy, declared “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life—and there is no problem with that.”
Bennett has also defended his role as company commander in the April 1996 Qana massacre, in which the Israeli military killed 106 Lebanese civilians and injured 116 Lebanese civilians and four UN workers.
The Most Right-Wing Government in Israeli History
Bennett plays an important role in Netanyahu’s coalition government. He pressured the prime minister to appoint Shaked as justice minister. Netanyahu needed a majority of seats in the 120-member Knesset in order to form a government. Bennett refused to have HaBayit HaYehudi—which had the extra eight seats needed, beyond the 53 Bibi had already established, for a majority—join unless Shaked was given the justice ministry position. Netanyahu conceded, on the conditions that she does not appoint rabbinical judges and does not head the committee overseeing the nomination of new judges.
Extreme-right leader Avigdor Lieberman, the former Israeli foreign minister who called for the beheading of disloyal Palestinians, unexpectedly announced that his Yisrael Beiteinu party, which has six MKs, would refuse to join the new government. Lieberman argued the coalition is not right-wing enough, as he believed it will not pass the so-called “nationality law,” officially defining citizenship based on Jewish ethno-religious heritage—thus turning non-Jewish Israelis into official, de jure second-class citizens—or that it will not go all out to destroy the elected Hamas government of Gaza. Netanyahu thus gave into Bennett’s demands in order to ensure the majority.
With HaBayit HaYehudi, Netanyahu’s coalition has 61 seats, a slight majority. His ruling right-wing Likud party has 30; the right-wing Kulanu party has 10 seats; HaBayit HaYehudi has eight; the ultra-orthodox religious party Shas has seven; and the other ultra-orthodox religious party United Torah Judaism has six seats.
Netanyahu’s fourth government is even further to the right of his previous ones. Many Israelis are concerned, and have characterized the new government as “Bibi’s all-time worst coalition.”
In response to Netanyahu’s appointment of Shaked, head of the Peace Now organization Yariv Oppenheimer commented, “Shaked as Justice Minister is like placing an idol in the Temple. No less.” MK Nachman Shai, of the Zionist Union, remarked “the demand to give Ayelet Shaked the Justice portfolio is like giving the Fire and Rescue Services to a pyromaniac.”
Arutz Sheva, an Israeli news outlet associated with the settler movement, notes “Shaked is expected to tackle leftists inside the judicial system head on.” The publication also characterizes her appointment as an “historic” and “major political coup,” writing:
Shaked’s appointment is considered a major political coup and could potentially pave the way for an historic change in Israeli politics. The judicial system in Israel is considered to be the strongest governmental bastion of the leftist founding elites, and its “activism” has hampered attempts by the Right to effectively rule Israel for decades.
The extreme views of Shaked and Bennett are not limited to their party. Other powerful figures in Netanyahu’s government harbor similar ideas. During Israel’s summer 2014 attack, codenamed “Operation Protective Edge,” deputy speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin, a senior figure in Bibi’s Likud party, called for Israel to “concentrate” and “exterminate” Palestinians in Gaza.
An independent investigation into Operation Protective Edge found Israel deliberately targeted civilians and medical workers and used unconventional weapons. After eight months of interviewing over 60 Israeli soldiers and officers who participated in the assault, Israeli veterans organization Breaking the Silence also discovered that “soldiers were briefed by their commanders to fire at every person they identified in a combat zone.” Soldiers say they were ordered to “shoot to kill” “any person you see,” including civilians.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and many of his political peers have continuously referred to the Israel Defense Forces as “the most moral army in the world.” Israeli soldiers recall shooting Palestinian civilians in Gaza because they were “bored.”
[Ben Norton is a freelance writer and journalist. His work has been published in CounterPunch, Electronic Intifada, Common Dreams, ThinkProgress, and ZNet, among others. His website can be found at BenNorton.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.]
Dear T., thank-you so very much, you and the good women I met at The Hague are a light on the horizon.
The beginning of 8th and 9th of MAY, Day of Commemoration of the end World War II and the Liberation from Fascism brought more light to this doomed capital of Germany:
The huge memorial field in Treptow, even the hill, was covered with the most beautiful flowers that every body had brought in spontaneously. It was a real international people's gathering. Of course most of the folks were Russians or had Russian ties. I spoke with many interesting men and women, e.g. a Russian woman, married to an American whose grown up son has three maternal languages: Russian. German, English.
You should have been there, it was a real folk festival. Folk groups played music, women sang traditional Russian folk songs, others danced in their home costumes under a welcoming sunny sky . People laid out there sandwiches and salads and shared food. Many beautiful things happened, only cheerfull ones, of course always under the watchful eyes of German policemen clad in black..
They watched as children were writing in Cyrillic script the names of those buried soldiers on paper that had been identified and than put their names up on long line alongside the gates...
They watched people celebrating and commemorating, reminding us of the sincere friendlyness of the Russian people. They watched Ukrainians too, and White-Russians, young men whose grandfathers had bravely fought against Hitler..
They saw the many beautiful reliefs leading towards the enormous 'grave hill' carrying Stalin's quotes. Its golden letters have been finally redone, so that every literate person could read the original words, friendly words! No word of hate or aggression.
On the Russian News Channel Russia Today (RT) they reported life from the festivities in Moscow. It must have been overwhelming.
I could not help crying in Treptow yesterday: We are not truly prepared to wage another war against Russia, are we? The Russians, who many times over from Frederic II , Napoleon, the Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler were the aggressed not the aggressor. A peace-loving and very sympathetic people, whom we owe so much. We really must insist: RUSSIA IS BY NO MEANS THE AGRESSOR. We should have instisted on that phrase in the HAGUE. Not doing so was a sort of premature capitulation. But we will continue to say it anyway. We will say it louder and we will deliver footage. The words of the ma-linformed young staff women from Syria(!) should not have gone uncommented. Without footage she said that Russian weapons make up 90 % of the weapons in the Middle East. Such accussations want evidence and we must insists on factual information.
Big hug from Berlin in peace and solidarity Irene
P.S. I feel profoundly ashamed for my people, for WILPF, for what they call here the "German peace movement", and especially today, May 8th/9th when we should all sincerely commemorate the end end of WWII and the liberation from FASCISM. Our part of the world is responsible for what has been done to the RUSSIAN/SOVIET people, to the JEWS and what has been done for decades to the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE , a brave people with whom we should side if we meant our words about Human Rights and Democracy sincerely.
Sie hat den Gang nach Moskau nicht gescheut, um die Toten zu ehren, die toten Kriegsopfer der Sowjetunion. Sie kam allein, am Nachabend der großen Siegesfeier, zu der sie selbstverständlich geladen, aber nicht erschienen war. Immerhin sie kam, anders als ihre westlichen 'Wertefreunde' der NATO-Kriegsgemeinschaft, die es vorzogen die Russen zu brüskieren. Griechenland und Serbien allein scherten aus dem westlichen Boykottbündnis aus und ließen sich die Reise nach Moskau nicht verbieten. Hut ab!
