Tariq Ali: How Vladimir Putin became evil. The US & UK condemn him for Crimea but supported him...

How Vladimir Putin became evil

The US and UK condemn him for Crimea but supported him over the war in Chechnya. Why? Because now he refuses to play ball

Tariq Ali The Guardian, Friday 28 March 2014


Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Ria Novosti/Reuters

Once again, it seems that Russia and the United States are finding it difficult to agree on how to deal with their respective ambitions. This clash of interests is highlighted by the Ukrainian crisis. The provocation in this particular instance, as the leaked recording of a US diplomat, Victoria Nuland, saying "Fuck the EU" suggests, came from Washington.

Several decades ago, at the height of the cold war, George Kennan, a leading American foreign policy strategist invited to give the Reith Lectures, informed his audience: "There is, let me assure you, nothing in nature more egocentric than embattled democracy. It soon becomes the victim of its own propaganda. It then tends to attach to its own cause an absolute value which distorts its own vision … Its enemy becomes the embodiment of all evil. Its own side is the centre of all virtue."

And so it continues. Washington knows that Ukraine has always been a delicate issue for Moscow. The ultra-nationalists who fought with the Third Reich during the second world war killed 30,000 Russian soldiers and communists. They were still conducting a covert war with CIA backing as late as 1951. Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet intelligence chief, wrote in 1994: "The origins of the cold war are closely interwoven with western support for nationalist unrest in the Baltic areas and western Ukraine."

When Gorbachev agreed the deal on German reunification, the cornerstone of which was that united Germany could remain in Nato, US secretary of state Baker assured him that "there would be no extension of Nato's jurisdiction one inch to the east". Gorbachev repeated: "Any extension of the zone of Nato is unacceptable." Baker's response: "I agree." One reason Gorbachev has publicly supported Putin on the Crimea is that his trust in the west was so cruelly betrayed...more

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/28/why-putin-crimea-strategy-west-villain



Tariq Ali has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He has been writing for the Guardian since the 70s. He is a long-standing editor of the New Left Review and a political commentator published on every continent. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, and The Obama Syndrome

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This New Hyundai Car Runs On The Poop Of California Residents, And The Fuel Is Free.

With hydrogen supplied by Orange County's sewage treatment plant and paid for by the car manufacturer, a new fuel cell vehicle is actually hitting the market in Los Angeles.

Adele Peters March 18, 2014

A new car from Hyundai runs on a fuel that has a truly endless supply: human poop.

Hydrogen created from sewage at a waste treatment plant in Orange County, California, will power fuel cells in the Hyundai Tuscon, available for leasing later this spring in a limited area around Los Angeles.

Right now, there are only about 10 hydrogen fuel pumps in the entire state, and most are supplied with hydrogen that’s made from natural gas. But the Orange County Sanitation District is testing out new technology that can make hydrogen cheaply by processing solid waste and feeding it to microbes that turn it into methane. The fuel will be pumped to local stations, making it possible for Hyundai to put its car on the streets.

For now, it’s only going to be available in the immediate area. “We want to make sure with this car that customers have pretty easy access to hydrogen,” says Jim Trainor, a spokesperson for Hyundai. “If there were more hydrogen stations, we could have more customers. We’ll plan more when the infrastructure’s in place.”

Full Story:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3027144/this-new-hyundai-car-runs-on-the-poop-of-california-residents-and-the-fuel-is-free