The website Moscow’s 5th column in Germany gives a lot of verifiable, valuable and numerous informations about Putin’s propaganda network in Germany and the main actors. Still, sometimes they overdo it. Global Review and I saw ourselves portrayed as such a 5th column because beyond interviews and contribution of transatlantic representatives we also publish articles from our blog on RIAC and have printed 3 articles by a propagandist of the Eurasian movement, Yuri Kofner, as a document. We also conducted interviews with Putin and Gazprom advisor Prof. Rahr as well as with Dr. Greogor Gysi , but we often do not share their opinions or only partially. To clarify these accusations, here first the accusation of the Putinbasher website 5th column in Germany against us and then our reply to clarify our self-image and our political positions:

Moscow’s 5th column in D

Some are paid, most of them are morons (Bezmenov)

Eurasia and Kofner

Yes, what now, dear Yuri, is Eurasianism important or not?

First of all, most Western analysts overestimate the influence that Eurasianism allegedly has on Russian president Vladimir Putin, on Moscow’s foreign policy and on its involvement behind the EAEU. Secondly, both intentionally and unintentionally Eurasianism has often received negative reviews by Western scholars and reporters, who draw similarities with European right-wing ideologies such as Italian fascism. Thirdly, this distorted view fits perfectly into the construed narrative of “a neo-imperialist Russian hegemon that coerces its neighbors and collaborates with European populist nationalists in order to build its own post-Soviet empire and undermine Western liberal order”.

Together, these arguments have become part of the overall agenda to discredit the Eurasian Economic Union as a liberal integration project and to dissuade European leaders from contemplating cooperation with it in form of a common economic space “from Lisbon to Vladivostok”.

writes Kofner at Ralf Ostner’s Global Review. Ralf Ostner is also a colleague at RIAC.

Well summarized what EAEU and the other Eurasian concepts are.

It cannot be Eurasianism, because it is only an ascription by the West to make Russia look bad.

Nevertheless, Eurasia is being promoted with a theme train „ЕАЭС“ in the Moscow Metro to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Union EAEU / EEU.

Clarification from Global Review:

I would like to forbid myself to be referred to as Moscow’s 5th column, the same with our blog Global Review. First read the Global Review articles to get a differentiated picture. If you had read Global Review carefully (such as the article “Russian Empire Concepts at their Limits?”), you should have noticed that we criticize Putin and his strategists. But we do not want a Cold War and an armament spiral, but rather contribute to relaxation and consider under which constellations and conditions a New East Policy ( Neue Ostpolitik ) would be possible – not as appeasement, but also not with the indispensable requirement of a regime change. We do not share the naive notion that everything would be better when “Putin is gone”, since even in the Arab Spring people thought that everything would be better when Saddam Hussein, Ghaddafi or Assad are gone. You can see the results in the Greater Middle East. We also analyze the Russian opposition. And just as Schroeder called Putin a “flawless democrat”, we also see that the Russian opposition are also not “flawless democrats”, if that is what we want as a yardstick. The best-known anti-Putin opponent in Germany Boris Reitschuster, like the liberal oppositionist Kasparov, points out that the majority of the Russian opposition is made up more of nationalist, even more chauvinist groups and parties, and that even a Navalny, according to former ZEIT editor-in-chief Theo Sommer, is at best a “ democratic nationalist ”, maybe also a Russian Trump. And then there is also the Liberal Democratic Party of „Russian Hitler“ (BILD) Zhirinovsky and many other groups and parties that are even more nationalistic than Putin. Our positions on Ukraine coincide with John Mearsheimer’s opinion. And we have written numerous articles AGAINST the AfD. I am neither a “colleague” of Yuri Kofner, have never met him, nor do I find it reprehensible to write on RIAC or to discuss with Russians. I am not paid for it, can on the RIAC side also call Putin-Russia a dictatorship, which was and never would be possible with publications in the Xi-China media, for example. I am not a Putin basher, but also not a Putin fan. There is still space between light and dark Germany. And I/we have nothing to do with the AfD, on the contrary. And then this hot cold war rhetoric: 5. Column – paid or morons/ „useful idiots“. According to this, Horst Teltschik is also a moron with his new book „Russian Roulette“. Accordingly, Kennedy and Willy Brandt were also idiots with their Ostpolitik or Nixon / Kissinger with their detente or the authors of the Harmel report of NATO.In addition, we reposted and cited the article by Kofner from RIAC as a document and evidence (he does not „write“ for us, nor is he a member of Global Review or anything like that) for what the Eurasia Movement is, as a good source about which factions it has, which historical developments it had and has or texts by Kofner on the EAEU, to make it clear that the Eurasian Economic Union, like the Resource Empire concept or Karaganov’s idea of ​​Russia as a Global supplier for international security, seem to be reaching its limits, maybe even will fail with a crash. We also repost sometimes an article from RIAC if we find it scientific or important to represent the discussions in the Russian elite, just as RIAC reposts articles from Global Review if they find them interesting, whereby they also prevent the publication of a number of our articles at the RIAC website. But compared to Chinese state media, RIAC is not as censorious. And it is not the case that RIAC is dominant in Global Review, since we have many other topics, authors and interviewees with opposing opinions and are not only fixated on Russia, but are also globally positioned like the title Global Review already programmatic expresses our self-understanding. Moscow’s 5th column in Germany should take a holistic view of the context. Apparently this website is functionally illiterate. We are also not available for cross-fronts/frontline coalitions with AfD, Elsässer, Jebsen and whatever other right-wing birds of paradise, nor are we supporters of a new conservatism or similar esoteric or esoteric-fascist nonsense or any blood and soil philosophies.

Then came the somewhat helpless comment by Moscow´s 5th column in Germany::

„no4right says:

June 13, 2020 at 11:07 pm

Who is Ralf Ostner?“

After this article, Moscow´s 5th cColumn in Gemrnay only issued a short comment that we were useful idiots of Russian disinformation who just couldn’t see through and weren’t allowed to criticize Navalny, because otherwise you couldn’t be satisfactory:

“Schröder and Navalny

We feel honored. A full article justifying not being a useful idiot (without even realizing what it is – but that’s clear because Disinformatsia, Demoralisatsia, and the other steps are irreversible and cannot reach victims with facts – Bezmenov).

And – wow! also in English! Unfortunately, it is not noticeable in accesses from abroad

I have no idea why Ralf Ostner is coming up with it again, he wrote everything in June, as a comment, and we haven’t written anything new about him or his blog …
Who equates Schröder’s „flawless democrat Putin“ with “ flawless democrats of the Russian opposition“ and referring to the flawless conspirator Mearsheimer in the case of the Ukraine is not satisfactory. „

https://no4right.wordpress.com/2020/09/30/schroder-und-navalny/

Our comment on this:

„Anyone who called someone like Navalny, who led a march in Moscow with right-wing extremists, portrayed in his speeches guest workers from the Caucasus and Central Asia as vermin, who was expelled from the liberal Yabloko party because of nationalist ideas for ethnic Russians at home and abroad, declared that the Crimea is Russian homeland (it all sounds very Putinesk, doesn’t it?), who has made an alliance with the Alliance against Immigration and Great Russia, is whitewashed as model democrats, is at least blind in the right eye or the idealizes the real world. For me just as unsatisfactory. I am now holding back with insulting verbal injuries. In the case of Mearsheimer, I partially agree. His offensive realism is already very nationalistic, quasi-imperialistic, but in the case of the Ukraine he and Peter Scholl-Latour in his film “Russia in the pincer grip between NATO, Islam and China ”were right in their analysis, as well as in their position on the Iraq war 2003, which only made Islamism and Iran stronger and left the whole region in chaos. Otherwise, I see your site as informative and often well researched. And Yuri Koffner is also more of an ideologist of Eurasianism. He not only wants an economic union, but also a spiritual union. But we are not Eurasian ideologues either.

To make it clear again: We do not see you as enemies, but find that you are doing a lot of valuable and informative work. However, you concentrate on networks and personal connections and we on your part easily slipped into this scheme without paying attention to our specific content Furthermore, you should be able to understand that one does not allow to be denounced and insulted as Putin´s useful idiots and your knowledge of disinformation campaigns is also very rudimentary, although you sometimes try to use 4 words of rudimentary Russian to potray yourself as deep and intimate insider of the Russian scene and its secret service abysses. There is disinformation on all sides and is not just a mean of the Russians or Putin. I myself met representatives from the Albert Einstein Institute in the Karen area of ​​Burma and the then US military atache and CIA liaison officer Robert Helvey, and disinformation campaigns or destabilization movements are not just a method used by Putin alone, but a common method from all sides and at any time in history, just as divide et impera were not invented by the Romans or the USA alone. And if you’ve ever read a western newspaper of the mainstream press and the “lying press”, you should also know that the Gulf of Tonking incident, which was staged by the US to start the Vietnam War, the incubator baby stories in which Saddam Hussien was the baby killer was staged as part of the Gulf War of 1990 or the weapons of mass destruction stories regarding Iraq in 2003 were the best examples of US disinformation. We could also accuse you of being instruments from the Soros -Nuland -Neocon- CIA disinformation campaigns, especially since you don’t even have a proper impressum and prefer to remain anonymousl. Do you have something to hide or are you paid influence agents of the New World Order or the CIA or some other imaginable conspiracy that might also lead to the Mossad and Israel and USrael? Or are you just useful idiots and morons of these powers? We do not condescend to such a primitive level of conspiracy, but criticize your political positions in terms of content, even in full detail, which seems unusual in the left-wing discussions, because we really appreciate you, but just make the effort to critizise your methodology. We hope that you will use our criticism as an inspiration for some self-criticism.

Don’t worry about our international readers, especially since we don’t want to be a mass blog, but one for multipliers-
If you examine our contacts, they range from transatlantic contacts to former NATO generals or fomrmer members the Policy Planning Staff of US Secretary of State Pompeo to RIAC or Alexander Rahr, to India, China, Japan and Southeast Asia, etc. Global Review is global and also in the world language English, which makes you a little jealous due to your lack of polyglot qualifications. That’s why we find your allegations so outrageous without wanting to fall into the category of marital/honour murder.

We don’t tolerate stupid, false accusations regardless of time and in principle. Furthermore, we notice that you criticize us who already conduct interviews with Rahr, who is familiar with Putin, but not ARD, ZDF or Phönix, where he is also interviewed. Or are they now also Moscow’s 5th column in Germany? In addition, we recommend that you translate your informative page into English and not stop at 4 Russian words as foreign language skills, and even network with international peers
Otherwise, we could only perceive this as provincialism and left-wing nationalism. We will now turn back to our real opponents who we do not see in you – we have more in common with you. But if you rightly criticize cross fronts in Germany, you should too also criticize cross fronts of Navalny or Russian opposition members with Russian right-wing extremists. And there are alternatives beyond Navalny with Kasparov, Khodorkovsky or Russian democrats that are not hyped here. Are you interested in a democratic Russia or just „Putin gone“, no matter who comes then?

Yes, and why do you deal with such a quantitatively insignificant blog like you, which you garnish with a surprised „Wow“ in the attention economy and ask yourself how we can answer your quantitatively insignificant blog in detail and that you get these honors if you don’t want to suspect a conspiracy or low motives behind it. On the one hand, we do not belong to the likes and click generation of the Millenials, which is only able to read and write 140 character texts by SMS or Twitter, but rather a multiplier blog that has readers with long and strategic articles and not like BILD or most blogs only publishes cheap, sensation-seeking short messages that are updated daily. Now we also had the discussion in the editorial office about whether we should answer it or ignore it, but we agreed that we should answer every attack on us promptly and concentrated, especially if they come from websites that are closer to us . On the one hand, because you mentioned us with false and stupid accusations and we answer every attack against us and recorded on Google. Secondly, because we think that you work qualitatively well despite your quantitative marginal reach and we honor this and also find it worth criticizing. So keep going, but not only make personal cross-connections, but also look specifically at contexts and content we concentrate above all else. And last but not least: We see this as an opportunity to define our self-image and our political positions more clearly and to present them more specifically.

There was only the very autistic answer:

no4right says: October 6, 2020 at 6:51 pm

„There is no point in making a comment, however long, and we do not allow ourselves to be bribed by praise.“

Well, no substantive argument was given, paranoid fear of corruption, pure autism. Moscow’s 5th column in D seems to be just idiots. Not even useful, more likely to be of no use. Apparently the generation of millennials who avoid substantive arguments because they don’t have any and don’t know anything to say and/or the generation of SMS and Twitter who are no longer able to read, understand and write longer answers than 140 characters. Minimally communicative autistic people who already have problems reading and writing a whole coherent sentence. Functionally illiterate and just plain idiots.