“Le fascisme, ce n’est pas d’empêcher de dire, c’est d’obliger à dire.” Roland Barthes
“Fascism is not about preventing people from saying, it is about forcing people to say.” So, contrary to popular belief, fascism is not “to be silenced”, it is obligatory to say. Your silence don’t save you, you have to say what fascism wants.
While almost the entire western world condemns Putin and Russia with fascism, let’s look at the other side. What about the west, which has overdone the condemnation? Let’s look at what has been done to the Russians in the last 5 days under the name of boycott and sanctions by west.
“Russian conductor Valery Gergiev dropped by Munich orchestra over ties to Putin”
The text under the photo of Valery Gergiev in the BBC news report is tragicomic: “Valery Gergiev, a supporter of President Putin, has failed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine”
So he had to succeed, but he failed, aha! Instead of saying they fired an artist for not speaking on what they want, this sentence was inserted in news. Where is the freedom of speech, that EU defends at every opportunity? Well, it is so-called defending of EU, as we have seen.
…World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said sport had to “step up and join efforts to end this war”…
Badminton
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has banned all athletes and officials representing Russia and Belarus.
Basketball
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) said it would ban Russian athletes and officials from its competitions until further notice.
Biathlon
The International Biathlon Union (IBU) said it would not allow athletes to represent Russia and Belarus but would invite individual athletes from these countries to compete as neutrals.
Climbing
The International Sport Climbing Federation (IFSC) suspended the Boulder and Speed World Cup scheduled for April in Moscow.
It plans to relocate the event.
Curling
The World Curling Federation proposed the introduction of a new rule which, if approved, would allow the federation to ban Russia from the upcoming World Championships.
Gymnastics
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) cancelled all its events in Russia and Belarus, adding it would not allocate other events to the two countries until further notice.
There are many more sports in the content of the news, I only quoted some of them.
Someone really explain to me how banning the athletes will prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine. So you ban these people because they voted for Putin, whom you define as a dictator? But you were already saying that the elections in Russia are not democratic? Or didn’t you say, people are under great pressure in Russia, the elections are dubious. What a dilemma is this. Or do you want these athletes to defect to the west or something? Maybe if there is a defector, there will be a chance to create a hero story to the west and the movie will be made; is this your hidden aim, haha!
All aside, these are athletes. ATHLETE. What does this word mean to you, I think it’s nothing!
CZECHIA Mulls Penalising Support of Ukraine Invasion
The Czech Republic’s chief prosecutor has warned that expressing support for Russia’s attack on Ukraine could be a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment.
…
The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed for Czech citizens to stay within the confines of the country’s constitutional and legal restrictions. Although freedom of expression is stipulated in the Czech constitution, meaning everyone has the right to express their views, it also has its limits just as in any democratic state.
This means that “under certain conditions”, anyone publicly supporting or praising the leaders of the Russian Federation regarding the country’s attack on Ukraine could face criminal charges, including at demonstrations or even online, Striz said.
The point they base this law on is 365 and 405 of the Czech Criminal Code. Which we talked about long ago. “Once more again rising extreme nationalism and fascism in Europe“. I don’t have anything else to add on this subject over my previous post.
Brussels looks to ban RT, Sputnik from EU over Ukraine disinformation concerns
In a new round of sanctions targeting Russia, the EU executive announced the two media, controlled by the Russian state, would no longer be broadcast in the bloc.
“We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that Brussels was “developing tools to ban [the] toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe” of the two Moscow-funded channels and their subsidiaries.
Twitter to flag all content linking to Russian state media
Tweets with URLs to Russian state media sites such as RT and Sputnik will now come with labels, as tech continues to take a stand on Russia.
Twitter has said it is adding labels to all tweets that link to Russian state-affiliated media sites and taking steps to curb their reach to prevent the spread of misinformation surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In fact, Twitter is currently working on an algorithm that tags not only Sputnik employees, but also the personal accounts of journalists and even former employees, even the people who never work for Sputnik. Are we surprised?
her personal account:
Former employee:
He never worked with any Russian media:
What Twitter does is not labelling, it’s tagging and targeting. Is there any other explanation for this?
Meanwhile, TGS (Turkish Journalists’ Union) reacted to the EU decision: In times of crisis, journalism is as necessary as bread and water for all societies.
The Contemporary Journalists Association (CGD) reacted to Twitter, which labeled Sputnik employees as ‘media affiliated with the Russian state’. In the statement made by the association, a call was made to “end the application immediately”.
DISK Press Working, affiliated to the revolutionary labor unions confederation of Turkey, again condemned Twitter.
But, our list about media ban, not only limited with Twitter, here is the list:
Instagram has blocked all RT accounts in 27 European countries
YouTube Blocks Russian Channels RT, Sputnik In Europe
YouTube has blocked Russian channels RT and Sputnik in Europe “taking into account the ongoing war in Ukraine”, the video-sharing platform said on Tuesday.
“We are blocking the YouTube channels of RT and Sputnik in the whole of Europe with immediate effect. Our systems need a little time before being fully operational,” YouTube said in an email to AFP.
Tech companies started to ban RT media app
Here’s which tech companies have—and haven’t—banned Russia’s state-sponsored RT media app
Companies that have restricted access to RT
Microsoft has removed RT from its Windows app store globally. The company is also de-ranking RT and Sputnik in Bing and will not show ads from Russian state-sponsored media, Reuters reports.
Roku initially barred RT on its streaming devices in Europe, but is now removing the app in all markets including the United States.
Google has blocked RT’s Android app in Ukrainian territory at the request of the government there, Reuters reports, though the app remains available elsewhere. It has also blocked the YouTube channels for RT and Sputnik in Europe, and has barred RT from earning ad revenue on YouTube.
Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has blocked users from accessing RT and Sputnik content in Europe and barred the outlets from earning ad revenue on its platforms.
TikTok has also blocked users from accessing RT and Sputnik content in Europe.
After this story was published, DirecTV confirmed to Axios that it is immediately dropping RT America from its channel lineup.
Apple pulled the RT and Sputnik apps from the App Store on Tuesday afternoon, while also pausing sales of its products in Russia.
Ukraine conflict: Disney, Warner, Sony halt release of films in Russia
Warner Bros, Disney and Sony have halted the release of films in Russian cinemas, after the invasion of Ukraine.
The announcements mean the releases of major movies The Batman, Turning Red and Morbius will now not go ahead as scheduled in the country.
They come as governments around the world have been ramping up their sanctions against Moscow.
Really, in the face of all this, your mental health needs to be like steel to live on this planet. There is no way to explain what has been done to today’s Z generation or to the future generations.
Also, I would like to add a few sanctions against the Russians:
Prohibition of drinking vodka.
Not to open more than twice the matryoshka dolls.
Recall of dogs gifted to Putin.
As last, while I am writing this post, Joe Biden talking and says that “Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos. They keep moving.”
And I say that dictatorships no longer have borders. Dictatorships continue with fascism, not democracy. What is done against Russian artists, media workers, athletes is fascism, and it seems that it is done under the borders of a greater dictatorship. This is not democracy. And those who applaud it today will not find a branch to hold on to when this fascism comes to their doorstep tomorrow.
Edit: It’s been 6 hours since I published this post and new nonsenses about today, new bans in the name of support(!) Ukraine as following.
-Sweden, Norway and Finland stopped the sale of Russian vodka in the country due to Moscow’s military action against Ukraine.
(I think someone read this post and heeded my suggestion above, haha!)
-The University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy canceled the lecture by Paolo Nori on Dostoevsky.
(Crime and punishment, Fyodor, haha!)
-Netflix halts filming of Tolstoy’s adaptation of Anna Karenina
It’s best to leave the planet for a while, or I have no stomach anymore of this nonsense.
unnecessary news from earth 
An important message, Migo, and very troubling. I noticed certain videos are no longer accessible on YouTube here – e.g., Iron Maiden, or Rimsky-Korsakov. I think of all of the ordinary people who suffer from boycotts. It’s never those in power who go hungry and unhoused.
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What? Iron Maiden! Why Iron Maiden, because of they have a song with name of Mother Russia? 🙂
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I don’t know why. When I visited your blog, I just noticed the message that the video was not accessible in my “country,” On my previous visit a few weeks ago, I watched it on your blog. I also noticed the same message on videos posted for a Russian friend’s blog this past week.
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It is very interesting, mostly I would meet these kind of message, “not access”, now reverse, it seems sort of world upside down.:) Can you write which video you saw that message, if you remember. And by the way, today I saw one of the most absurd of sanctions and taking a so-called stance against Russia.
According to the decisions taken by the International Cat Federation (yes, there is such a federation, I heard it for the first time):
No cat belonging to exhibitors living in Russia may be entered at any FIFe show outside. Russia, regardless of, which organization these exhibitors hold their membership in.
No cat bred in Russia may be imported and registered in any FIFe pedigree book outside Russia, regardless of, which organization issued its pedigree.
here is the link:
http://www1.fifeweb.org/wp/news/#412
I guess they think the cats voted for Putin, haha!
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Here’s a link to the site where not only the video in this post was blocked, but also the one on the previous post was too.
OMG – Russian cats are targeted? What can people be thinking?
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The link doesn’t appear, probably all Russian connected links are invisible anymore, haha!
And not only the Russians cats were banned, I have also seen that they started to ban Russia trees in contests. Like this one,
“Russia loses participation in European Tree of the Year due to invasion of Ukraine”
https://www.treeoftheyear.org/Blog/Russia-loses-participation-in-European-Tree-of-the
I have been always knowing the West has Russophobia deeply or openly, but even myself, I honestly didn’t expect the West to be so lose their minds, dear Carol.
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‘In fact, Twitter is currently working on an algorithm that tags not only Sputnik employees, but also the personal accounts of journalists and even former employees, even the people who never work for Sputnik. Are we surprised?’
Not at all, but its interesting to see how this algorithm is changing with every crisis from the pandemics to Putin -US war in Ukraine
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I should have included the self-defense sentences of Twitter, you know, as the principle of neutrality. :)) Which is, you are one hundred percent right in what you said, dear friend.
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Good article, my friend. It’s just racism, isn’t it? I can understand economic boycotts and political-based sanctions: but I disapprove of *cultural* boycotts – it’s just racism, demonising anything Russian. I couldn’t believe the Edinburgh conductor had to resign from his position. In the UK, we have a very famous TV advertising campaign that has a talking meerkat: it has been on TV for about ten years. Now they’re removing it from the air: why? – because the meerkat has a Russian accent 🙂
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Thank you Awan, my friend! And yes, this is racism with many. I think a new definition of racism needs to be made. Because now it seems that it has turned into an ideology in the hands of some segments. “It is morbid discrimination”, and it needs greater recognition than this. Racism is in the nature of colonialism, its rise again in Europe is attributed to the fact that it is connected with the colonial past of Europe in most places. So in a sense, human race development is just “so-called”. Seriously, if the human species is still unable to overcome the racism in this age, the situation is more dire than it seems.
I researched the adv you mentioned. It’s a really funny meerkat. 🙂 Maybe we should open a hashtag, by saying “what’s bother you with the meerkat?”;)
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