November 2022
As part of the Regional Initiative in Combating Disinformation “Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub: Exposing Malign Influences through Watchdog Journalism”, we present you a new analysis of fake news and disinformation narratives.
Khazin: The West is secretly negotiating with Putin, everything is reminiscent of the spring of 1945
https://srbin.info/politika/hazin-zapad-tajno-pregovara-sa-putinom-sve-podseca-na-prolece-1945/
This news represents a commentary on the news published on The Wall Street Journal about the alleged secret communication between American and Russian officials regarding the situation in Ukraine.
In the subtitle of the news, the author states “The West is starting to negotiate with Russia in order not to lose completely, as evidenced by the “leaking” of information about the negotiations, writes “The Wall Street Journal”.
The original news on the mentioned portal The Wall Street Journal is very short and states that “President Biden’s top national-security adviser has participated in recent months in confidential discussions with the top aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to reduce the risk of a broader conflict over Ukraine and warn Moscow against using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction”, referring to unnamed United States officials. He also adds that “the aim was to protect against the risk of escalation and to keep the communication channels open, and not to discuss the resolution of the war in Ukraine.”
So, as we can see, the text of the original news does not lead to the conclusion drawn by the author of the news that the West is negotiating with Russia in order to prevent defeat in the war in Ukraine.
This information was obtained from unnamed sources, but the American portal also states that when asked about the secret communications, officials of neither side confirmed this information. Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, according to the portal, said that “People are claiming a lot of things” and declined to comment further, while Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “Anglo-Saxon newspapers published numerous lies.” The news on The World Street Journal portal concludes that “The White House has not publicly acknowledged any calls between Mr. Sullivan and any senior Russian official since March.”
Nevertheless, this news was the reason for economist Mikhail Khazin’s comment, who took these alleged, unconfirmed negotiations as a reason to draw a parallel with the situation at the end of the Second World War, where the West and the USA almost by default identify with Nazi Germany. The narrative about the neo-Nazi West and its implementation of Hitler’s policies is not new and has been circulating in tabloid media in Serbia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
“Economist, Mikhail Khazin, commenting on the news, noted that the current circumstances reminded him of the spring of 1945, when Germany tried to conduct informal negotiations with the allies in order to prevent total defeat.” He talks about how the war is actually being waged against the liberal coalition that many want to get rid of and that this was reflected in the coming to power of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
“Now a new wave of liberation has begun, the final one. I think that after Biden’s departure in 2024 or after Biden’s impeachment, the United States will forever end the occupation of the Western global project, the global financiers of liberal ideology.” However, the author does not state exactly what he means by the global project of the West and in what way he occupied the world and represents a threat.
Economist Khazin in this text also predicts that the European Union will suffer the strongest blow and that it may not be able to survive, again without explaining his position and without stating the reasons for making the mentioned predictions. “He mentioned that the strongest blow will be given to the European Union, and the EU may not survive this attack. In this case, there are two options for further developments – if Germany keeps its economy, it will form a Romano-Germanic core around itself, but if Germany falls, the center will move towards southern Europe and the conditionally new Austria-Hungary.”
In the conclusion, the author once again confirms the parallel of the current situation in Ukraine with the Second World War without citing specific examples and situations on the basis of which he considers this comparison relevant and justified. “Those processes taking place in the world absolutely reflect the logic of the end of the great war. The behavior of the participants in itself reminds of the behavior of the participants at the beginning of 1945 – there, as well as here, there was a losing side, which has not yet completely lost, trying to grasp the straw of salvation,” Khazin concluded.
Author: Jovana Bogosavljević