Email from Ukraine Portfolio Manager; Obama Idiocies and Ironies

President Obama came out swinging today and issued a Stern Warning to Russia on Isolation in response to the crash of MH17.

Barack Obama has warned Russia it risks further international isolation if it does not intervene directly with the pro-Russian separatist rebels to "compel them to co-operate" with the investigation into the crash of MH17.

He questioned why the rebels would want to prevent international observers and investigators access to the crash site. "What exactly are they trying to hide?"

He said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had “direct responsibility” for the actions of the armed men on the ground.

"Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists,” he said. “No one denies that. Russia has urged them on, Russia has trained them, we know that Russia has armed them with military equipment and weapons including anti-aircraft weapons."

"Compel Rebels to Co-operate" 

The US cannot control its own border with Mexico, in peacetime. Yet, Obama expects Russia to not only control its border with Ukraine, but to also control rebels outside Russia. That's ridiculous.

To top it off, Putin offered to let Ukraine monitor border checkpoints from the Russian side, but Ukraine turned down the chance.

"Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists. No one denies that," stated Obama.

That too is ludicrous. Russia denies that claim. And any one with any bit of common sense can detect Obama's statement as blatant self-serving propaganda.

Email from Ukraine Portfolio Manager

Ilya Porkalov, a Ukraine pottfolio manager writes:

This allegation about the billboard has already been disproved. You just can not see the address on the billboard no matter how hard you try. And that network of car dealers can be found in many cities. How stupid it would be for Ukraine to make stuff up (like this video, or the phone recordings) when all secret services of the world will be watching and checking this, and with a single fake all credibility would be lost?

This is a clip of the original video posted by Ukrainian interior ministry.

Government Stupidity Happens All the Time

Yep, it would be not only pretty stupid, but rather very sloppy and quite stupid. Yet, that is exactly what I believe happened. I give a detailed explanation in just a bit. First here is a bit on Ukraine media reporting.

Ilya asked me to read website http://en.censor.net.ua/ stating "This one is a bit biased to pro Ukrainian side, but at least they don't make up news like all Russian media."

He also asked me to look at several other websites including http://www.stopfake.org/.

StopFake is a Russian activist site. They're trying to disprove many of the Russian propaganda stories, you post on your blog. http://www.kyivpost.com/ is an old newspaper for expats in Ukraine, it's slow but objective. Also if you don't mind using Google translate the best Ukrainian news website is considered pravda.com.ua - it's well known for high standards of journalism, although it's Ukrainian, it's definitely not propaganda. Several of their journalists have allegedly been killed by Ukrainian governments over the years.

Response to Ilya

Jacob Dreizin, a US citizen who speaks Russian and reads Ukrainian has this answer for Ilya.

1. In regards to news sites: Censor.net.ua is notorious for outrageous, bogus news. It's not taken seriously, even in Ukraine. Stopfake.org is a clown site.

Kyiv Post is OK, but it does not really have any reporters or assets out in the field. Pravda.com.ua is good. As far as I know, it is one of only three "real" news sites in Ukraine that goes beyond just repeating government press releases. I actually referred to this site once or twice in my emails to you. However, and like Kyiv Post, Pravda.com.ua does not really have any assets out in the field. So ultimately it's more like a blog.

2. As for the billboard: The sources I read did not claim to see any address on it. Instead, there are several people who know the surrounding area (the billboard, the road, houses, etc.) It just happens that the billboard raised their eyebrows and gave it away. Also, they have provided a precise street address for one of the structures in the background. (I think it was 11 Gorkii Street, Krasnoarmeisk.)

If someone wants to deny that, fine. But then, they should specify the location of the footage (e.g. what road, what town, what mile-post, what GPS coordinates, etc.)

Isn't that the minimum that a credible government would do? Just posting crap to Youtube and saying "this is a Russian Buk, this is the Russian border" is not credible. If they can't back it up with verifiable facts, then it's just a random video in some random place that is allegedly showing something. Could be anywhere.

Jacob clearly has the far better argument here. If Ukraine has an address for that video, let's see it.

It's easy to believe propaganda when it supports the side you are on.

95% of Western media articles take the side of Kiev. In his email, Ilya asked me to look at both sides, and I am doing exactly that.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com