TNH
Must be hard to get the money out of Russia woth the sanctions. Probably has to collect his pay in cash
Is russia any worse than america?
Elon Musk and Glenn Greenwald not leaving any doubt they’re firmly on Team Putin alongside Tucker Carlson.
Thread by Mikhail Khodorkovsky about Tucker Carlson:
Upon his departure from Fox, Putin’s international propaganda network RT has “offered” Tucker Carlson a job.
Why do the Kremlin-controlled media love Carlson more than any other Western journalist? Here’s the truth: 
One of the Kremlin’s favorite propaganda techniques is to showcase Western media and political figures who say things that agree with its own version of reality, and say “See? There are some sensible Westerners who know the truth”
This is meant to legitimize the regime’s lies in the eyes of the domestic audience, so the higher the stooge’s profile, the better. It’s the reason why Donald Trump became almost the main character of Russian TV during his 2016 campaign, for example
It’s also why in March of 2022, just after Putin started his illegal war in Ukraine, his admin sent a memo out to every major TV channel (most of which are run by Putin’s mistress, Alina Kabaeva) telling them to use more footage of Tucker Carlson
This came after Carlson spent part of his Fox News show defending Putin’s invasion and blaming the US for inciting the conflict. When the order was given, Carlson became a regular star of Russian propaganda in all its forms
And when I say ‘star’, I mean it. Tucker Carlson was everywhere. Here he is splashed across the page of the Russian state broadcaster’s flagship news show, Vesti. The headline: ‘Fox News: Russia Was Right, US Lied’ (about so-called bioweapons labs in Ukraine) vesti.ru/article/2687477
Here he is, accusing Zelensky of planning a nuclear attack on Russia, as quoted by Tsargrad Media Group, owned by wealthy ultranationalist Konstantin Malofeev, sanctioned since 2014 for financing ‘separatists’ in east Ukraine
And here regional news agency Ura quotes Carlson as saying that Biden is trying to build a ‘dictatorship’ in the US ‘following Zelensky’s example in Ukraine’ (which wouldn’t sound out of place coming directly from Putin’s mouth)
В США испугались, что начали превращаться в УкраинуЧитайте на URA.RUhttps://ura.news/news/1052584982
As for TV, Carlson became so popular among Russian channels that one of his rants, in which he blamed “US saboteurs” for the Nord Stream pipeline explosion, was shown at least 12 times in one day across different stations washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
When he was giving them so much material, of course they were sad to hear he had been fired. Top propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, who regularly calls for Russia to use nuclear weapons against the west, said Tucker was a ‘voice of reason’ – and also offered him a job
(Russian propagandist says U.S. media 'lost its last remaining voice of reason' after Carlson exit - POLITICO)https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/24/pro-russian-propagandist-after-carlson-exit-00093546
It doesn’t really matter, whether Carlson is in this willingly or not. At this historic time, this self-declared American patriot has ended up in the same camp as power-mad retired KGB officers and notorious propagandists like Dmitri Kiselyov, who once threatened Russia would turn the US into radioactive ash.
…as well as Snowden. Hil-ar-ious.
Aye, and shur isn’t Assange in jail.
Snowden is in russia because the us revoked his passport/citizenship while he was en route to Ecuador.
Is this really where you’re at now…jailing, murdering, and persecuting journalists, state surveillance, censorship?
A Russian spy had numerous exchanges with the MEP Clare Daly and provided her with briefing documents outlining issues she should raise when speaking publicly about his prosecution.
Daly, 55, has previously described his case as an example of a Europe-wide campaign by authorities to “stifle dissent”.
An investigation by The Sunday Times and the Dossier Centre — an investigative project founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian opposition politician — which has been tracking the case for a number of years, has confirmed that Daly, an MEP for Dublin, engaged with Algirdas Paleckis, a Lithuanian who was caught spying for Russia and in July 2021 was sentenced to six years in prison.
Between 2021 and 2022, Daly was involved with the campaign to free Paleckis, who provided Moscow with information on Lithuanian officers and judges linked to the so-called January 13 case, in which Russian officials were tried for involvement in a Soviet military crackdown in Vilnius in January 1991.
Paleckis fell under suspicion after he paid off a substantial part of his mortgage. He claimed he was collecting information for journalistic research but was convicted of spying. His case was used by the Russian foreign ministry to sow discord in Lithuania. Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, described it as a “Russophobic move” and a “reversal of democratic rights and freedoms” in Lithuania.
Daly and Mick Wallace, her fellow Independents 4 Change MEP, appear to have become involved in the campaign to defend Paleckis after working on various campaigns with Tatjana Zdanoka, a Latvian European parliamentary colleague who is accused of collaborating with Russia’s security services. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Daly or Wallace.
Zdanoka is alleged to have worked with Russia’s FSB since 2005, an allegation she denies. In a statement on Facebook, she said: “I and like-minded people continue and will continue to use the platform of the European parliament to fight neo-fascism.”
Wallace and Daly took part in a webinar set up by Zdanoka to highlight the Paleckis case in late 2021. In a recording of the event, Daly described the spy’s conviction as a “tragedy”, likening it to internment. She said dirty tricks campaigns were becoming common across Europe.
Last month when Regina Doherty, a Fine Gael candidate for the European parliament, called on Wallace and Daly to clarify their relationship with Zdanoka, Daly said on a podcast: “We’re not linked with anybody except ourselves, we’re independent, we love our independence.”
Daly and Wallace travelled to Lithuania on two occasions to attend a court hearing for Paleckis, who was placed under house arrest pending an appeal that ultimately failed.
Daly invited at least one unidentified parliamentarian and an Irish councillor to travel to Lithuania to support Paleckis after his original conviction. The two unidentified politicians declined to travel, citing Covid.
Her comments on the case suggest that she believed Paleckis was the victim of a conspiracy. Her website described the trial as an example of “how espionage law is being misused in Europe and further abroad to stifle dissent”. Daly’s public statements mirror those prepared by Paleckis, who provided her with briefing documents about his case.
In October 2021, Daly told the European parliament that Paleckis was prosecuted without a “shred of evidence” in a speech that she later posted on her official social media channels. “The threat to democracy is not from online disinformation. It’s from creeping authoritarianism of the political mainstream,” she tweeted.
The spy continued to engage with Daly, suggesting that she point out what he described as an absence of evidence produced in open court to prove that he passed information to Russian spy agencies. Paleckis believed he should be portrayed instead as a journalist and politician who was targeted because he was a long-time critic of the Lithuanian government.
The spy made no mention of evidence from Deimantas Bertauskas — a co-accused who agreed to testify against him. At the trial, Bertauskas said that Paleckis and he knew what they were doing. “I had been brainwashed by the Russian security services,” he said.
Paleckis was keen to ensure that the Lithuanian authorities were aware of Daly’s involvement in his campaign and attendance at trial hearings and it is thought that this was why he sought help from her and Wallace. At one stage, it is understood that the spy even offered to provide accommodation and cover the cost of some flights but that offer was not taken up by the Irish MEPs.
Wallace later raised the Paleckis case in the European parliament saying it put “shame on the European Union”. Daly used social media platforms to highlight the case.
She and Wallace have continued to support Paleckis after the Lithuanian courts rejected his appeal. In 2022, they both travelled to Lithuania to visit the spy in prison.
Daly and Wallace have been criticised for their stance on Russian imperialism. In October 2022, they voted against a European parliament resolution that condemned Russia’s escalation of its war against Ukraine, though they supported sections of the resolution that condemned Russia’s actions.
The Sunday Times was unable to obtain comment from Daly who did not respond to calls or emails. Wallace did not respond to questions.
Norman Finkelstein.
It sort of undermines your case to be against genocide in one place where you’re for it in another place.
https://twitter.com/normfinkelstein/status/1677342356570357760
Who could have guessed that one of the PiS’s joke judges would turn out to be a Russian spy.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-judge-heart-spy-scandal-loses-immunity-2024-05-09/
Polish judge at heart of spy scandal loses immunity
By Reuters
May 9, 20243:57 PM GMT+1Updated 5 hours ago
WARSAW, May 9 (Reuters) - A Polish judge with access to military secrets, who asked for asylum in Belarus, looked set to face espionage charges on Thursday, after a Polish court said it was lifting his immunity.
Judge Tomasz Szmydt’s defection to a key ally of Moscow threw Warsaw’s place as a key target for Russian intelligence activity into sharp focus, while opposing lawmakers have traded blame over who allowed his ascent to the upper echelons of the Polish justice system.
“The Supreme Administrative Court - Disciplinary Court of the first instance … adopted a resolution allowing Judge Szmydt to be held criminally liable, authorised his detention and pre-trial detention and suspended the indicated judge from his official duties,” spokesperson Sylwester Marciniak told state news agency PAP.
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar had earlier said that the removal of Szmydt’s immunity would allow an arrest warrant and a note to Interpol to be issued, limiting his movements, but acknowledged that Polish services would not be able to arrest him in Belarus.
Szmydt has denied the spying allegations, saying he has not broken any Polish or European laws.
Since arriving in Belarus Szmydt has been interviewed on Russian and Belarusian state television and has claimed that he was forced to flee political persecution in Poland at the hands of a government that is under the sway of the United States and intent on starting a conflict with Moscow and Minsk.
Polish officials have dismissed such claims as absurd propaganda that add weight to accusations he was working for foreign intelligence.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from Poland’s pro-European coalition government and the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS)administration traded blows over who was responsible for letting a man they believe to be a Belarusian agent become a high-ranking judge, without security services unmasking him.
“We are dealing with the mysterious story of a person who in a short space of time made staggering career advances in the Polish justice system thanks to the support and engagement of Law and Justice politicians,” Deputy Justice Minister Arkadiusz Myrcha told parliament.
Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said on social media platform X that the current government was “afraid of the facts” and that Szmydt had been promoted three times before PiS came to power.
The judge first came to public attention in Poland for his part in a trolling scandal which led to the resignation of a deputy justice minister in 2019.
He was part of a group accused of seeking to discredit judges critical of the PiS government’s judicial reforms by planting media rumours about their private lives.
He appeared in a television documentary in 2022 in which he revealed details about his participation in the group.
You’d hope this finishes her political career, but I have little faith in humans.
There is a Councillor Dean Mulligan who is running in Swords, always voting against active travel and new builds etc, he is her man in the area and mentions her on posters etc.
Hope she loses him votes
She has great support among Palestine supporters/activists and they don’t give a shit about this stuff (it seems to me).
Most of them don’t because they’re thick as planks and have no understanding of geopolitics beyond USA and being friendly with USA bad, everyone who opposes USA good.
Brendan Ogle is one of the few on the left to properly call out this stuff.
Of course then on the other side you have USA always good, Israel always good, anybody who supports Israel good, anybody who criticises Israel in any way evil.
The vast majority of ordinary people do not see the world like this, yet public debate is almost entirely dictated by these two extremes.