RÉSEAU VOLTAIRE -- The Skripal Affair: A Lie Too Far?

The Skripal Affair: A Lie Too Far?

by Michael Jabara Carley

Canadian historian Michael Jabara Carley summarizes the various arguments in the Skripal case. It shows that the British authorities probably hide some elements and did not hesitate several times to lie to accuse the Russian Federation. He then drew a parallel with an old English scandal, strangely identical to the present case.

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | MONTREAL (CANADA) | 23 APRIL 2018 

FRANÇAIS 

On 4 March 2018 it was a nice day in southern England, and the MI6 Russian spy Sergei Viktorovich Skripal and his daughter Yulia stepped out for a stroll, stopped at the local pub in Salisbury, went to lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then took a walk in the park where they collapsed on a park bench. What had happened to them? Did they suffer from food poisoning? Or was Sergei Skripal involved in some dark affaire and the object of a hit by persons unknown, his daughter being an accidental victim?

The police received a call that day at 4:15pm reporting two people in distress. Emergency services were despatched immediately. The Skripals were rushed to hospital, while the local police launched an investigation. It began to look like attempted murder, but the police urged patience, saying it could take months before they might know what had happened and who, if anyone, was responsible.

MICHAEL JABARA CARLEY -- One Hundred Years Ago: the Eve of the February Revolution 1917

MICHAEL JABARA CARLEY | 16.02.2017 | OPINION

One Hundred Years Ago: the Eve of the February Revolution 1917

The Russian Revolution marks its centenary this year.  If the Soviet Union still existed, there would be huge celebrations, re-enactments, films, and local celebrations across the country.  But the USSR is gone and the Russian government does not seem to be too interested in remembering what really happened 100 years ago.  It is an embarrassment for some «liberals» in Moscow who would like to bury the embalmed corpse of Lenin, dig up the graves on Red Square, and forget the past.  The Russian Orthodox Church has canonised the last tsar Nicholas II; some people even want to restore the monarchy. 

Apart from a small, privileged minority, there was another Russia, which included most of the Russian population and was a much more sombre place.  The people who lived there had no time for concerts, art galleries and novels

To rehabilitate the Romanovs, you have to forget or rewrite much of Russia’s history.  That’s nothing new of course for Russians or for people in the west for that matter.  Stalin rubbed out the old Bolsheviks in the history of the Russian Revolution and western elites rub out the Red Army from the history of World War II.  In the Baltic states, Poland and in the Ukraine, monuments are destroyed, street and places names changed and Red Army cemeteries sometimes desecrated.  For the west Stalin is the culprit who started World War II along with Hitler, although these days the fuehrer barely rates a mention in some western political narratives.  And the Red Army which played the principal role in destroying the Nazi Wehrmacht is practically invisible in western histories of how Churchill, Britain, or more usually the United States «won» World War II. 

There were workers too, who laboured in factories, mines, steel mills, in the most appalling conditions, treated like little more than beasts or convict labour, working long hours in dangerous conditions for derisive pay

So I propose that we look at a little genuine history of the Russian Revolution.