Julian Assange recently called for the release of Pussy Riot. However, Assange is employed by Russia Today, owned by the Russian state: which unfairly sentenced Pussy Riot members to two years in prison.
Now Wikileaks’ Russian “gatekeeper” Israel Shamir argues that Pussy Riot is a Jewish plot.
Israel Shamir is the Far Right Holocaust denier who doubled up as the Russian representative of Wikileaks. Wikileaks paid Shamir £2000 to take Wikileaks cables to Russia and surrounding states. As part of his task, Israel Shamir had tried raising money to bring Assange to Russia and get him a visa, but this did not work out.
When Shamir was in Belarus, he observed the election which President Lukashenko won as an “international observer“. In the Belarus election, many dissidents were hospitalised, and protesters dispersed by police. Dismissing concerns about vote-rigging, Shamir claimed that there was nothing wrong with the election. He also mocked opposition protestors, claiming they were like “losing football fans“.
Israel Shamir was in Belarus in a dual role for Wikileaks, and as an international observer of the election.
That day, Shamir also met with the head of Lukashenko’s Presidential Administration, Uladzimir Makei, about Wikileaks. Two days later, President Lukashenko announced there would soon be a Byelorussian version of Wikileaks, to expose the US-linked opposition. The project ended up landing various opposition figures in prison, with Lukashenko apparently stealing documents from Vladimir Neklyaev to use against him. At this time, unredacted Wikileaks cables began appearing on a state-backed Byelorusssian website.
Israel Shamir began claiming in the Russian press, that Wikileaks would expose the Ukrainian Orange Revolution as being US-backed (and therefore evil). [Shamir had previously stated that Ukraine had a choice, between being free with Russia, or “in thrall to the West and the Jews“.]
Shamir also gave a Wikileaks cable to a Russian-language newspaper about the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, presenting the unremarkable document, as proof that the US was somehow encouraging Estonia to thumb its nose at Russia, by moving the statue.
Julian Assange’s Wikileaks paid Israel Shamir to spread lies which benefited Russia, and undermined democracy in ex-Soviet countries, still struggling to be free of authoritianism.
How can Julian Assange call for Pussy Riot to be free, when Wikileaks has supported Russian totalitarianism – to the point of Assange presenting a show on Russia Today?
Assange has avoided answering questions on Israel Shamir – see this Panorama clip at 6:14, where John Sweeney confronts Assange over Shamir and Belarus, and Assange refuses to answer:
But the pro-Assange, self-styled “Left” has no interest in supporting freedom.
In their eyes, supporting Russian totalitarianism only shows Assange to be anti-American, and therefore even more of a hero.
If you ask them to choose between Pussy Riot and Wikileaks, you know whom they would pick.
