On the 26th and 27th of February, the Russian Federation hosted over 500 participants from more than 130 countries in Moscow to challenge Western hegemony in the Second Congress of the International Russophile Movement (MIR).
UWI documents in the following days some speeches delivered in the congress. Today we publish the speech of Larry Johnson. Johnson is a former CIA analyst and also former employee of the US State Department. The title was set by UWI.
I was enjoying the chance to be a spectator and watching all these smart people talk…
We’re in a transition era. We’re witnessing the end of really the colonial empires, which started in the mid-14th century, 15th century, we’re seeing the final death throes of it, I believe. And as such, we’re bringing with it much death and destruction.
I have been outspoken, along with a few of my colleagues in the United States, such as Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Doug McGregor, Phil Giraldi. There are a few of us.
I recall a time when the media in the United States was such that opposition voices would be allowed, and that you could come up and present an alternative case. But that’s not the reality anymore.
I’m old enough to remember the, I don’t know if you want to call them the good old days or the bad old days of the Cold War, when the United States used to sit in its moral superiority and make fun of the Soviet Union because they had an organization called Pravda, but they didn’t really tell the truth. And they restricted the flow of information, and they were a government that was ruled by a gerontocracy.
I’ve now lived long enough to see the United States become that very entity.
It cracks down and ignores freedom of speech. It persecutes political opponents. Furthermore, it jails political opponents.
I thought, with great outrage, with the death of Navalny, how it was mourned by Western politicians who didn’t say a word about the death of Gonzalo Lira at the hands of Ukrainian authorities, who don’t say a word about Julian Assange.
And I’ve lived to see the time come when I’m thankful for Russia, because Russia provided safe haven for Edward Snowden. I have talked to some of my countrymen who say, well, Snowden should have gone to Congress. He should have done it in a different way. But he tried. But he watched what had happened to other attempted whistleblowers.
So, I just want to say that I’m thankful and honored to be a part of this gathering and hope to make more contributions as we go along. And it is an honor to be in your presence. Thank you.