Russia: West Brings in Harvest of Lost Moral Authority

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G8 Gipfel Terror Chaos Streetfights Heiligendamm

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sourced by Brian A Kennedy

The question can be only twofold: Have the Western leaders lost touch with reality in a Marie Antoinette style, to whom the saying was attributed "if they have no bread - then let them eat cake!" in the face of starvation in pre-revolutionary France, is it the arrogance of thinking they can get away with it (without being caught red handed). Or is it down to downright chaos in the command structures of Western states?

Today, at the EU-Russian summit in Samara (Russia), German chancellor Angela Merkel is quoted in a report by german daily Sueddeutsche as expressing her concern over Russian authorities preventing opposition members from coming to Samara to peacefully express their dissent. 

Merkel, according to the report, did not have to wait for Russian President Putin's retaliation too long:

"Such practises are being applied in Germany as we speak", Putin is quoted as saying. He alluded to the police raids on opposition groups well ahead of the G8 meeting in the German sea spa of Heiligendamm. With the pretext of preventing the formation of a "terrorist organization", German authorities had raided over 40 appartments and offices in a massive search. The measure has drawn stark criticism by several legal experts for excessive use of state power in the meantime, and Putin can rely on his view being echoed by a majority of the German population, that indeed it becomes increasingly hard for outside observers to discern between the Russian measures, and treatment of the opposition or alleged "terrorists" in Germany and other Western countries.

The episode in Samara shows that it becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for the West to take the moral high grounds vis á vis countries like Russia and China. In March, China issued a report on the situation of Human rights in the U.S. in retaliation for constant criticism over a stream of allegations from the U.S. on human rights violations.

Ultimately, the short circuited use of even immoral means by Neocons and the British administration of Tony Blair to reach goals, as such seen as moral, apparently bears bitter fruits now, and will cause a credibility crisis the effects of which are bound to linger significantly beyond the lifetime of Neoconservativism.