by Oui
Mon Feb 12th, 2018 at 12:44:24 PM EST
Dutch PM Mark Rutte has been on the roll with accusations of Russian disinformation about the MH-17 crash, election meddling and fake news through RT. It took awhile to form a new cabinet after last year's general election, his party nominated its chairman for the task of Foreign Minister. Someone with no experience in diplomacy and foreign affairs. Except of course his meeting with Russia's president Putin in his dacha. Well more or less ...
Dutch Parliament to Question Zijlstra's Credibility | De Volkskrant |
Dutch parliament wants clarification of Zijlstra about Putin's invented meeting. Rutte: 'He is still credible'
Both coalition and opposition parties want clarification from Minister Halbe Zijlstra of Foreign Affairs about his fabricated contacts with Russia. D66, CDA and ChristenUnie want a letter with an explanation to the House of Representatives. Several opposition parties want to quickly debate with Zijlstra, who today in de Volkskrant confesses that since 2014 he has told a fake story about a meeting with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Zijlstra lied about talking to Putin: 'I pushed it away because it got the wrong charge'
"Was it wise to protect the source in the way that I did it? No, that was unwise. But the information is correct."
No, he has never sat in one room with Putin, as he has always claimed, Halbe Zijlstra now acknowledges. He would have heard his words from a source he wants to protect. "And the content is just true."
More below the fold ...
Opposition: Zijlstra is not credible
The PVV wants to get the minister of foreign affairs to the test before traveling to Moscow on Tuesday evening for a meeting with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "Debate necessary with Foreign Affairs Minister about his lie. Debate has to take place before he meets Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs," says PVV foreign spokesperson Raymond de Roon.
PVV leader Geert Wilders blames Zijlstra for spreading fake news, while the Dutch government accuses the Russians of this: "The information comes from the Dutch VVD Minister of Foreign Affairs. The pot blames the kettle that it's black," according to Wilders on Twitter.
...
Thierry Baudet of Forum for Democracy wants Zijlstra to resign: 'Lying as if it were printed. Unbelievable that this kind of people control our country. Baudet tweeted. `Halbe Zijlstra as a textbook example of the pleonasm `Liegende VVD-er'. Halbe, you first go to the #nep news police @KajsaOllongren and then quickly resign."
Zijlstra's lies are taken from the West's propaganda playbook as written through Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFERL) ...
Zijlstra admits faking story about Putin's 'greater Russia' ambitions | Dutch News |
Foreign affairs minister Halbe Zijlstra has admitted lying about being at a meeting where Vladimir Putin supposedly set out his plans for a `Greater Russia'.
Zijlstra claimed that he had overheard the Russian president talking about his expansionist ambitions during a gathering of businesspeople at Putin's dacha in 2006. At the time Zijlstra was working for Shell. But in an interview in the Volkskrant at the weekend he admitted that he had not been at the meeting, but `borrowed' the anecdote from someone whose identity he wanted to protect.
'I made the decision that this is an important geopolitical story with serious implications,' he said. `I put myself in the story to make sure that the revelations weren't about the person who was actually there. Because that could have had implications for him or his company.'
In his original version of the story, which Zijlstra began relating at VVD party conferences in 2014, he claimed he had been a back room in the dacha when he heard Putin define 'Greater Russia' as 'Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states,' adding that 'Kazakhstan was nice to have'.
Doubts about the veracity of the foreign minister's claims came to light when former senior Shell executive Jeroen van der Veer told the Volkskrant that Zijlstra had not been at the meeting in 2006. Zijlstra admitted he was not present but insisted that the substance of the story was true.
Putin Pledges To Protect All Ethnic Russians Anywhere. So, Where Are They? | RFERL - April 2014 |
'New Russia' And Ukraine
The Kremlin's new position has come into sharp focus in recent weeks in the Ukrainian region of Crimea -- annexed by Russia last month -- and in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. Russian nationalists such as the Eurasianist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin refer to this region by the historical name "Novorossiya," or "New Russia," which also encompasses several southern regions of Russia including Rostov Oblast and Stavropol and Krasnodar krais.
The area was added to the Russian Empire over the 18th and early 19th centuries by military conquests over the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. Beginning with Catherine the Great, the fertile region was handed out to Russian nobility who enserfed the local population. Although Catherine notably invited foreigners from Europe to settle in the region, Russification of the region was official policy.
My earlier diaries - key word "Novorossiya" ...
○ Anne Sikorski-Applebaum the Raving War Lunatic
○ EurAsianism and Russian Ultra-Nationalists United In Aleksandr Dugin
The Dutch for decades have been a close political ally with the AngloSaxon nations although its economy is closely tied to Germany through the Rotterdam seaway and Rhine river into the industrial heart of the Ruhr area.
Leading up to the Iraq War, PM Balkenende and FM De Hoop Scheffer bowed to the wishes of US President George Bush. The Dutch chose an awkward compromise to support the invasion “politically” but not militarily therebij joining France and Germany. A report on Dutch cooperation in Iraq was quite clear: this decision was against International Law …
○ Dutch Investigation: Iraq Mission Ruled Illegal
I suppose the Dutch military wanted to make amends after their role in the Serbian conflict and the massacre of Srebrenica.
The Dutch government led by PM Rutte has spoken with Washington’s voice on the Ukraine and has pushed aside the result of a people’s legitimate referendum on Ukraine. The new cabinet of Rutte will abolish the people’s referendum.
○ The Dutch Have Gone Mad [More Mad] – July 25, 2014
○ Dutch PM Rutte Abruptly Calls-off MH-17 Recovery Mission – Aug. 6, 2014
