“I am angry at Russian media” – Michael McFaul

By John Bowers for jar2

The US Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul, whose days in Moscow are rumored to be numbered after a meeting in the Kremlin, has been making some very loud statements in the Russian media in the last 24 hours, namely that he is “angry” at Russian media for reporting on his support of the Russian “opposition” and repeating that the US will act without the UN Security Council.

Regarding a scandal that broke out within hours of his arrival in the Russian Federation when he met and reportedly paid leaders, organizers and members of the Russian opposition, he has stated that he is “angry with Russian mass media reports on U.S. sponsoring opposition in Russia. Which is a very bold and revealing statement in itself but carries further cause for concern due to the fact that this has never been denied nor even taken up.

This one statement is very troubling for many reasons. For one it is unheard of for a foreign diplomat to criticize the press in the country where he or she is stationed. Especially when that media is carrying out the true function of the fourth estate and reporting on nefarious activities and the illegality of the actions of officials, and in this case actions that until that point were unheard of anywhere in the world being carried out so openly and brazenly.

The reports by the media at that time had McFaul paying off, giving orders to and synchronizing with the Russian “Opposition”, in fact making them US funded and backed opposition. This was almost completely transparent attempt at staging and organizing the overthrowing of the government of President Putin which included an offer of $40 million to organize a military revolt in the country according to reports in Russian media.

These facts must not be forgotten and the bravery of the journalists and Russian media outlets who had the courage to report on these events must be applauded and remembered. Their efforts helped to stop such events from happening which would have sunk the country in chaos. So of course the US was not happy, in the same way those pushing for were not happy about that the US was stopped from invading Syria.

Yes McFaul is angry, he was sent to Moscow to organize a color revolution, that is his true specialty and that was his mission, and the Russian media got in his way. Yes he is still angry and was angry then, and many journalists have no doubt felt the backlash, such as I did when McFaul attempted to say I physically threatened him and have me thrown into a Russian prison because I was very vocal about these attempts to subvert Russia. Due to the backlash that his own actions caused the owner of this wrote that “his days were numbered in Moscow if he continued to behave in such a manner” and as the US loves to do they took the words out of context and used the ones that suited their purpose and filed a formal diplomatic complaint saying the owner of this site John Robles “physically threatened” McFaul by saying “His days are numbered.”

This personal attack on Mr. Robles was an unheard of event and the accusations that Mr. Robles threatened McFaul were false and stated without a shred of evidence. The US Government long ago labeled Mr. Robles an enemy of the state for his outspoken criticism and publication of material showing US Government illegality, much of which is still on this site, and went so far as to revoke his citizenship and leave him stateless in Russia in an effort to shut down this site and to stop Mr. Robles from speaking out.

The egregious treatment of Mr. Robles by the US Government and such officials as McFaul who made an overt attempt to have Mr. Robles sent back to the United States or imprisoned by saying there was some false physical threat warrant an outcry but the media and human rights groups have been silent. Nancy Pelosi told Mr. Robles, an American Indian, that he “… did not deserve US citizenship because he had chosen to become a part of Russian society”, something unheard of.

The fact that a US Ambassador would criticize the freedom of the press of a host country, as far as I know is unheard of, and goes to show how far the US has gone down the road of believing that they can manipulate and control the institutions of civil society, the governments and the media of every country around the world.

Of course McFaul is “angry” his plans were stopped thanks to the media and the Russian people need to be grateful to their media for remaining independent and not under the influence of America. This is a fact that many Americans know who come to the Voice of Russia and other Russian media outlets to seek the truth.

As a Russian journalist, and one who has been attacked personally by McFaul, I feel his comments to be personally offensive and an attack on myself and all of my colleagues who strive to publish the truth and be free from censorship and from outside influence. I also find it particularly offensive that McFaul, while openly admitting that he is here only to serve the interests of the US, something he said at a public gathering last night, would then at the same time criticize and attempt to control and influence the media by saying he is “angry”. Surely a veiled warning or threat to the media that they had better not speak out or dare to publish anything negative about him.

McFaul also brought to the forefront once again the concept of “American Exceptionalism” and the way that the US has been ignoring international law by saying: “It is a long standing American position when the vital international interests are at stake we would be prepared to act without Security Council blessing and the President said that exactly right.”

For a diplomat to admit that their country is prepared to act without the approval of the United Nations Security Council would be a cause for international scandal if it was said by any other country in the world other than the United States, but then again the United States continues to see itself above the law and continues to see itself as the sole dictator of what is right and what is wrong and even what the press in foreign countries can and can not print.

McFaul also said Obama did not want to bomb Syria during his light banter session, which is also an affront to me personally and to all of my colleagues in the media (in Russia and around the world) and every expert and government official in Russia (including President Putin) and internationally who tried to and finally convinced Obama, the international community and even the American people not to invade Syria. Even for those with very short memories it is still very clear the weeks the world was living in suspense whether the US would unilaterally invade yet another sovereign nation. Obama stated he was prepared to go to war again unilaterally without the UN Security Council but it was the lack of support for his calls for war, not his own lack of desire that stopped him from invading Syria.

Those are the facts and that is the historical record and no one should be allowed to engage in historical revisionism without be called out on it.