US hits Russia with 500 sanctions over Navalny, Ukraine

Silence is more meaningful in diplomacy. What is left unsaid often carries more significance than words uttered at any international platform or before media for public consumption. Action speaks louder than speeches. Expressions and phrases used in global amphitheatre may not find place in dictionary. US-led Rather Than US-backed Unless one understands this reality, one would not be able to appreciate the actual message of the so-called recent criticism by the United States of America of indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets by Israel. One needs to fathom the distinction between the United States-backed Israeli operation and the United States-led Israeli military campaign. The fact is that ever since May 14, 1948 there does not exist anything called US-backed Israel, but it is always US-led Israel. True, Britain and France created it, but ever since then nothing happens in this Zionist state without the approval of Washington. The recent criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by President Joe Biden can be understood with the help of following example: In the era of feudalism landlords used to have their own henchmen. These lathi or baton-wielding gangsters would not only oversee and protect the land of their masters but would even target the rivals on former’s behalf. In Hindi they are also called ‘lathait’ (those wielding lathis). Ironically, these henchmen too are poorly-paid villagers belonging to the backward castes and Dalit groups. Their service would be used by feudal lords to grab the land of weak peasants or suppress any rebellious farm labours demanding genuine/minimum wages or better working condition. Very often the victims of these henchmen would fear them more than the distant master, who would not come in picture. Some times these henchmen too had to face retaliation from their rivals and have to even lose their lives. That is, they too have their October 7 moment. Thus, both of those who suffer come from almost the same poor and disempowered section of the society. The only difference is that these private strongmen of kulaks had a false notion that they are actually powerful. Some times when things really go out of hand the feudal master would, just for the public consumption, rebuke and scold their own henchmen. He would even give a slap or two to them in public though in private he would appreciate their action. Feudal Lord Joe Biden Exactly the same is the situation in Levant, where the feudal lords named Christianized Britain, France and later the United States with the help of Jews, who were recruited as henchmen, grabbed the land called Palestine. As they had to undergo enormous hardship in the same Christian Europe the Jews were left with no option, but to serve their masters. Lured in the name of Promised Land they were asked to look after the newly acquired property. These hapless Jews—not the rich ones living in West—were armed by the same Christianized imperialist powers, who actually had nothing to do with their own religion. As the real masters of this whole chunk of land are sitting in Washington, London and Paris the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu falsely started nursing the notion that they are the real owners. With modern day ‘lathis’—that is bombs and missiles—they would sometimes go overboard in targeting their rivals, Arabs in this case,who are incidentally overwhelmingly Muslims. So, like the feudal master who would sometimes pull up and even slap his henchmen President Joe Biden had in public criticized Netanyahu while in private he himself, and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan whole-heartedly shower praise on him for implementing their order. The Western media is blowing this so-called rift in such a way as if Biden is really upset. If he is so, why not stop all military aid and withdraw warships from the region? Why in the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly the same US had strongly come out in favour of vassal state, Israel? In international geo-politics diplomacy and hypocrisy are the two sides of the same coin. Slave not Master Thus, like in the case of feudal set up it is the highhandedness and atrocities committed by the henchmen and not by the master (from Harry Truman to Joe Biden), which get highlighted. The latter is more conscious about his own image as he has to bluff and cheat many others in the world. Similarly, if the victims in feudal set up fear the henchmen more than the real perpetrator of the crime, over the years several Muslims religious scholars have slipped into the disease called paranoid psychosis. According to them the 0.2 per cent Jews are the real rulers of the world. In the process they have forgotten the role of the real Satan, the Christianized Western imperialist powers. Keeping the Jewish henchmen in front, the United States and its allies have so-far killed 20,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. For them this figure is nothing when compared to Tokyo bombing when in one night of March 9-10, 1945 they killed over one lakh defenceless Japanese civilians. This was five months before the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Germany the British and US fighter aircraft killed 25,000 fellow Christians of Dresden between February 13 and 15, 1945. In March and April, they carried out similar fire-bombing though fully knowing that Germany, like Japan, was on the verge of surrendering. And in Congo the Belgian imperialists carried out a genocide in which about 1.2 crore poor and hapless Blacks were eliminated between 1885 and 1908. A large number of them had their hands cut off. Mind it, Congo is today an overwhelmingly Christian country, but the colour of the skin of the people is different. So, no one talks about this double Holocaust. If Biden is reprimanding Israel for carrying out indiscriminate bombing, he is doing so because the public opinion is now not only going against the Zionist state, but also against its masters. So, a mild slap or two was the need of the hour. What Biden and his friends in the Western capitals are not understanding is that unlike in World War-II and other atrocities committed in the past in this televised world today they cannot suppress all the facts from coming out. The West is getting isolated in its own backyard. — Joe Biden

Washington: The US hit Russia with 500 new sanctions on Friday over the death of jailed Opposition leader Aleksey Navalny and the ongoing war against Ukraine, with the goal of further constricting its energy earnings that fuel and sustain the war effort.

The US has also announced 100 sanctions against entities that are providing “backdoor support” to the Russian war machine, including those in China, the UAE and Liechtenstein.

“These sanctions will target individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defence industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” US President Joe Biden said, announcing new curbs.

Also Read

Death of Indian student in US: ‘Where is justice?’ asks Hindu Group

“They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

The 47-year-old Navalny died in a Russian prison on February 16. The US has sanctioned more than 2,000 entities in Russia since President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to deter him by squeezing his energy earnings and sources of material for the war industry.

But Russia appears far from being deterred. Its economy grew by 3 per cent in 2023, more than the US economy. And it continues to wage the war, which is now going in their advantage specially with Ukraine’s depleting arsenal desperately in need of replenishment. A legislation providing additional security funding for Ukraine is caught in a political fight between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, home of the US congress.

Pressing Republicans, who control the House of Representatives to clear the bill, Biden said: “History is watching. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will not be forgotten. Now is the time for us to stand strong with Ukraine and stand united with our allies and partners. Now is the time to prove that the US stands up for freedom and bows down to no one.”

These additional sanctions come amidst further deterioration in relations between the world’s largest nuclear powers and sharp language exchanged by the two sides.

Biden called Putin a “crazy SOB’ at a fundraiser for his re-election campaign earlier this week. And Putin reacted by sarcastically calling Biden his preferred president of the US