What the hell has happened to Western democracy over the past few days??
First, some mysterious entity motivated the Ecuadorian Embassy to cut off the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — presumably under pressure to protect Hillary Clinton’s fragile Presidential candidacy — by disrupting the flow of embarrassing email leaks concerning her team.
And today, we’re seeing reports that another mysterious actor motivated NatWest Bank — a financial institution with the British government as a majority owner — to terminate banking services provided to Russia-based media group RT. The bank has since waffled on its decision.
With no pressure in any direction placed on NatWest, right?
Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has an opinion or two about that:
RT, along with the Russian government, have been highly critical of the US — particularly with regard to America’s behavior in the Syria civil war and the battle for Aleppo.
In case you missed it the news, the British government has aligned with the United States in demonizing Russia and Its current behavior in Syria. Tensions have become strained to the point where the British Royal Air Force pilots operating in Syria have been given instructions to shoot down Russian aircraft if the pilots feel threatened.
<sarcasm>It’s strange how the prelude to war is filled with such synchronicity!</sarcasm>
These events remind me to write an Aleppo piece soon. It’s time to pull together these pre-war artifacts …
By the way, the Internet shutoff hasn’t stopped Wikileaks from leaking:
song currently stuck in my head: “all you do is dial” – heatwave
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