Halle, Germany: Government moves to establish a police state after fascist attack

Gregor Link

In the two weeks since the attack on a synagogue in Halle, the German government has made no attempt to clean out the extreme right-wing networks in the police, judiciary and Bundeswehr (armed forces), which have been known about for years. Instead, it is using the fascist attack as a pretext to further arm the repressive state apparatus and implement its long-held plans to comprehensively spy on journalists and Internet users.

The new Intelligence Authorisation Act, which until now had been hidden in the drawers of the Interior Ministry, is to be deployed for this purpose. “For months, the draft...remained simply lying around,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on Sunday. “Now things could move quickly.”

A spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry had informed the newspaper that the “law for the harmonisation of secret service powers” was now already in departmental coordination with the Justice Ministry. “Seehofer’s old bill,” the newspaper continues, “suddenly seems like a current answer to the crime in Halle.”

As the World Socialist Web Site wrote in March, the law is a comprehensive attack on freedom of the press and fundamental democratic rights. It provides, among other things, for the secret service to use trojan spyware to spy on journalists and editorial offices—without judicial authorisation and without the persons concerned having committed a criminal offence.

Providers of encrypted messenger services would also be forced to record the communications of their customers and transmit them to the authorities based purely on suspicion.

At the beginning of last week, Thomas Haldenwang, president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as the secret service is called, and Holger Münch, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), used the attack in Halle as an opportunity to promote the law and to announce an increase in staffing by 300 and 440 new posts, respectively. They will be used to establish “new units” to combat extremism.

According to the broadcaster MDR, the two federal authorities are also calling for “stronger surveillance of the Internet,” “further bans on voluntary associations” and measures against right-wing “festivals” and “concerts.” The German domestic intelligence service will in the future also be allowed to monitor children under the age of 14 and infiltrate video game platforms.

According to a report by broadcaster Deutsche Welle, at their conference in Kiel, the interior ministers already decided to tighten up the firearms law and to “obligate Internet platforms” to report “relevant content under criminal law” immediately so that it can be deleted or those responsible prosecuted. Furthermore, the police and state intelligence agencies of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein are to cooperate even more closely in the future—also within the North German network.

At the same time, Family Minister Franziska Giffey (Social Democratic Party, SPD) announced to the Osnabrücker Zeitung that a new law against the radicalisation of young people would be introduced this year.

The newspaper quotes the family affairs minister saying that “certain risks of interaction” on the Internet “must be prevented or minimised from the outset by technical measures.” The “targeting of young people on the Internet” must be “prevented as far as possible.” To this end, the “providers” of digital platforms should be “made more responsible.”

Long experience shows that such measures—once introduced—will be directed primarily against the left. Two years ago, the then interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, banned the anti-fascist website “linksunten.indymedia” and declared its editorial staff to be part of a “listed association” in order to circumvent the right to freedom of the press.

Two years later, the public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe suspended all criminal proceedings against the presumed operators of the website because it was unable to prove any criminal offence against them. Last year, the Saxony state secret service branch listed the concert “We are more,” directed against the right-wing extremist riots in Chemnitz, under the heading “left-wing extremism” in its annual report.

In close consultation with German government circles, Google has censored the World Socialist Web Site. And the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has been listed in the secret service report for two years because—as the government’s response to the SGP, which lodged a legal complaint against it, says—”fighting for a democratic, egalitarian, socialist society” and “agitation against supposed ‘imperialism’ and ‘militarism’” are unconstitutional.

Just a few weeks after the murder of Kassel’s regional government president, Walter Lübcke, Giffey’s ministry had cut off funds for numerous civic programmes. At least 120 organisations were affected, including the anti-racist Amadeo Antonio Foundation and the well-known right-wing extremism exit programme “Exit,” the financing of which for the period after 2020 is now unclear. In future, a total of €8 million will be cut from civil society projects.

Meanwhile, in a feverish campaign, all parties in the Bundestag (parliament) are working to further strengthen a state apparatus that is riddled with right-wing extremists. The budget of the Interior Ministry increases by €720 million to €15.3 billion in the new federal budget; €6.4 billion alone will be spent beefing up the federal police, the BKA and the cyber authorities. During the budget debate in the Bundestag, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had already announced—almost four weeks before the attack in Halle—the creation of new BKA and constitutional protection units with “hundreds of posts.”

A report by news weekly Der Spiegel illustrates the extent of the expansion of the repressive state. According to the report, the BKA has grown by almost 50 percent since 2013, from 5,012 to 7,562 officers in 2020. During the same period, the Federal Police grew from 38,297 to 46,848 posts in the current year. According to the draft budget, another 2,000 additional jobs are planned for 2020.

At the same time, the number of employees at the Bonn Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is expected to almost triple—over 1,400 civil servants are expected to work for the Cyber Combat Authority in the coming year. In addition, the Munich-based Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector (ZITiS) is to grow from 190 to 232 employees. According to its own reports, the digital weapons foundry that was formed in 2017 develops tools for “cryptanalysis” and “telecommunications surveillance” for the federal security authorities.

The budget debate in the Bundestag in September showed that there is no opposition in parliament to the establishment of a police state. If there was criticism of Interior Minister Seehofer’s plans, it came from the right.

Burkhard Lischka, SPD spokesman for domestic policy, said, “A good domestic policy relies on a strong state. What we have achieved in the area of internal security is really something to be proud of.” Stefan Ruppert of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) said, “You don’t hear much about the Interior Ministry. We think—too little, because the tasks are still very big.” He called for the more consistent deportation of refugees.

Irene Mihalic, domestic affairs spokeswoman for the Green Party parliamentary group, also attacked the plans of the interior minister from the right and made an aggressive plea for a further strengthening of the security authorities.

“You want to create 7,500 new posts in the security authorities,” she shouted at the interior minister, “So far so good. We also support all of this, but new posts do not yet mean new employees. Aspirations and reality are miles apart here! Thousands of positions are still vacant.” She shouted at the parliamentary plenum, “There has been no investment in the security authorities for 10 years, but massive savings have been made in the area of personnel, which really cut to the bone!” Such a “retreat of the state at the expense of security” should “not be allowed to happen again.”

André Hahn, Left Party deputy faction leader, spoke in a similar vein. After he had also pointed to “thousands of posts” that could not be filled, he shouted at the interior minister, “What you are doing here, Mr. Seehofer, is action for action’s sake that does not solve a single problem.”

The breathtaking increase in the repressive state apparatus and the massive expansion of the powers of the security authorities are directed against the widespread opposition among workers and young people who reject militarism, war, state armament and social cuts.

Death toll mounts as Iraqi protests defy repression

Bill Van Auken

Iraqi protesters and security forces clashed at the edge of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone Monday, leaving at least another six demonstrators dead and scores more wounded as the mass protests that have gripped the country continued into their second month.

Monday’s clashes came after demonstrators forced their way across the Ahar Bridge, which spans the Tigris River, and into the Green Zone, a restricted area that is the center for government buildings and residences of top officials, as well as both embassies and offices of military contractors and other foreign entities. The crowds reportedly came within 500 yards of the prime minister’s office and reached the headquarters of Iraq’s state-run television.

Protesters set tires and dumpsters ablaze and hurled rocks inside the Green Zone, which was quickly flooded by security forces firing live ammunition, military-grade tear gas and water cannon.

The clashes came a day after a fatal confrontation between security forces and a crowd that attempted to storm the Iranian consulate in the Shia Muslim holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad.

Anti-government protesters chant slogans during a demonstration in Baghdad on Friday [Credit: AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed]

The latest killing brings the known death toll since the start of the demonstrations in early October to over 260, with thousands of protesters wounded, in some cases grievously injured by live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters fired directly at demonstrators.

Friday saw the largest mass demonstrations since the US invasion of 2003, with crowds filling Baghdad’s Tahrir Square as well as wide avenues funneling into it. It was organized in defiance of the Iraqi military, which attempted to clamp down on the protests by imposing a nightly curfew. Ignoring the order, crowds remained in the square overnight, erecting tents and occupying an 18-story building overlooking the area, which has been dubbed “Revolution Mountain.”

Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi made a statement late Sunday calling for an end to the protests and declaring that “it’s time for life to return to normal.” The appeal expressed the increasing fears within the corrupt Iraqi ruling oligarchy that growing sections of the working class are joining the mass upsurge and threatening its wealth and power.

Mahdi in particular condemned the roadblocks that have shut down Umm Qasr, Iraq’s main Persian Gulf port in the southern city of Basra, as well as the joining of the demonstrations by oil workers outside key oil installations in the south of the country. There is also a continuing strike by teachers that has shut down schools throughout much of southern Iraq, as well as by public employees. Government buildings in many cities have been shut down, in some cases draped with banners proclaiming, “Closed by order of the people.”

Mahdi warned that the closing of the port and the threat to the oil fields risked “causing big losses exceeding billions of dollars.”

As Monday’s events showed, this appeal clearly failed to produce the desired effect. The protests are driven by mass unemployment, particularly among younger Iraqis, including those who graduate from universities to find there are no jobs. It is further fueled by stark social inequality and the knowledge that the “billions” in oil revenues that Mahdi is worrying about losing are flowing into the pockets of foreign and domestic capitalists and corrupt politicians, rather than benefiting the Iraqi masses.

Mahdi’s remarks were also notable for their failure to mention a promise made just days earlier by President Barham Salih that Mahdi was prepared to resign once a suitable replacement had been found, and that early elections would be held following the drafting of a new electoral law.

Even if Mahdi were to resign, this alone, along with the meager social concessions that have been proffered by the government, would not pacify the hundreds of thousands who have taken to the streets. They are demanding an end to the entire political setup imposed under the US military occupation that followed the criminal American invasion of Iraq in 2003, along with a fundamental social transformation.

The chant being taken up by the Iraqi protesters is the same one used by Egyptians and Tunisians in 2011: “The people want the fall of the regime.”

In the case of Iraq, the US-imposed regime was constructed upon reactionary sectarian lines aimed at furthering Washington’s divide-and-rule strategy. State positions and spoils were divided up between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties that would supposedly represent their respective ethnoreligious constituencies, while looting the country’s resources to line their own pockets and reward their followers.

The revolt that has erupted since last month has been directed at this entire reactionary setup and has explicitly rejected religion and ethnicity as the lines of political division, posing instead that of class interests.

The fear of this movement within the Iraqi ruling establishment has found sharp expression in efforts to prevent any spread of the protests into the Sunni areas of Anbar Province, which were devastated in the-called “war on ISIS.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Monday that security forces had arrested two men in Anbar for posting statements of solidarity with the protests on Facebook. It cited the case of Sameer Rashed Mahmoud, who posted a comment stating that students and public employees should strike in support of the protests on October 26. Within an hour and a half, counterterrorism police raided his home and arrested him for the post, charging him with incitement. He has been imprisoned ever since without charges.

A second case cited by HRW was that of a 25-year-old man who also indicated solidarity with the protests on his Facebook page on October 26. Within four hours, five police cars came to his house to drag him away. “They hit him and accused him of inciting protests, before handcuffing him and putting him in one of their cars,” a relative said.

The Anbar security forces issued a statement calling on all of the province’s residents “to head to work and continue with construction, preserving security, supporting security forces, and benefiting from past lessons, from which the province has only gotten destruction, killings and displacement.” This was an unmistakable threat of more mass killings in response to any attempt to emulate the protests in Baghdad.

The character of the mass protests has cut across Iran’s relations with the Iraqi government, which have centered upon Shia sectarian parties, whose political leaders, such as Mahdi, willingly offered themselves as functionaries in the puppet regime set up under the US occupation.

Last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated, “I seize this opportunity to tell those who care about Iraq ... to remedy insecurity as their priority,” while warning, “The US and Western intelligence agencies, with the help of money from regional countries, are instigating unrest in the region.”

While US imperialism will no doubt do whatever it can to exploit the crisis in Iraq to further its own interests in the region, the social explosion that has taken place not only there, but also in neighboring Lebanon, is driven by an intensification of social inequality, anger over conditions of poverty and unemployment, and hatred for corrupt ruling establishments that are totally subordinated to the interests of international finance capital.

To the extent that the Iranian bourgeoisie has sought to defend its own interests in the region by cementing alliances with these ruling elites, it has joined US imperialism as a target of the protesters’ ire.

Washington has responded cautiously to the events in Iraq, where it maintains thousands of troops and military contractors, using the country as a base for its operations in Syria as well.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advised the Iraqi government to “listen to the legitimate demands made by the Iraqi people,” while cautioning all sides—the security forces and their victims alike—to avoid “violence.”

Protests erupt after Peruvian government approves controversial Tía María mining project

Cesar Uco

Protests by farmers and peasants have continued to escalate in the days following an announcement by the Mining Council, a division of Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem), of its approval of a construction license for the controversial Tía María mining project.

Following the council’s decision, the mine’s owners, Grupo Mexicano, through its subsidiary Southern Peru, a US company, announced that it would postpone construction due to the violent rejection of the project in the Tambo Valley, where the open pit Tia Maria mine is located. It is a heavily populated agricultural region near the city of Arequipa in the southern Peruvian Andes. The transnational Grupo Mexicano has a long presence in Peru, operating two large copper mines in the south of the country—Cuajone and Toquepala.

Enraged by the Council’s decision, hundreds of protesters blocked the main roads in the region. Thirty kilometers of road linking the districts of Cocachacra, Deán Valdivia and Punta de Bombón were impassable. The population of the province of Islay woke up to the presence of pickets in the area.

Protest against Tía María mine [Credit: ocmal.org]

Protesters did not wait for the Mining Council’s ruling to express their dissatisfaction. Since last Monday, according to El Comercio, the director of the province’s school district, Juan Luque, said that “school work is carried out normally, but in the Tambo Valley few students have attended their educational centers.” Several had been affected by tear gas fired by the police, he said.

In addition, shops remained partially paralyzed and farms are without workers. A farmer who joined the roadblocks at dawn told El Comercio: “That mining project is not going to enter the Tambo Valley, which the president [of the Republic] understands. For 10 years we have been fighting and my children are no longer afraid of the police.”

Arguing against approval of Tia Maria, the Tambo Valley farmers-peasants said that the authorization of the mine’s construction had ignored the findings of a previous report that it poses a direct threat to the fragile ecosystem in the region, particularly the so-called “Lomas de Cachendo”, which the Ministry of Agriculture (Minagri) designated as protected land. It is an ecosystem located in the Tambo Valley where extractive activities cannot be carried out because the land belongs to the Regional Government of Arequipa, which prohibits private economic activities. This ecosystem has an area of 8,092 hectares, at least a tenth of which would be destroyed by the mining project.

Following the Mining Council’s decision, Arequipa Governor Elmer Caceres Llica reiterated his opposition to the project. And a spokesperson of the farmers and peasants of Tambo Valley, Miguel Meza, said that they had decided to intensify their protests. Meza announced that strikes will continue beginning Monday, until the government of President Martín Vizcarra reverses the Mining Council’s decision. He accused the government of “not honoring their word”, and Vizcarra of “mocking the Tambo Valley.”

Meanwhile, the head of Arequipa’s Regional Environmental Authority (ARMA), Carlos Santos Roque, charged that Southern Peru was already carrying out construction activity in the Lomas de Cachendo area in violation of its promise not to begin until an agreement had been reached. The biologist told Radio Yaravi that satellite photos had shown signs of roads and penetration of the sensitive area. His agency, he said, would be using drones and other technological resources to corroborate these violations. The local authority was barred by the Vizcarra government from participating in the environmental impact study on the Tía María project.

Only three months ago, Vizcarra met with the governor of Arequipa and declared his opposition to Tia Maria. On August 8, Vizcarra was audiotaped speaking against the project.

“On August 9, the National Mining Council suspended for 120 days the license of the Southern Peru Copper Corporation, which was in charge of the construction of the Tía María copper project,” reported El Correo. It then cited Vizcarra’s taped statements in which he claimed agreement with the Arequipa governor, while emphasizing that a “technical” means should be found to get out of the mine deal.

This is the same language used by the businessmen represented by the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy, which issued a brief statement claiming that the Mining Council issued its ruling based on “technical” and “legal” criteria, after evaluating the documents presented against the construction license. No explanation was provided as to what “technical” and “legal” criteria were used.

Tia Maria is the latest in a long series of conflicts between the transnationals and the comuneros – peasants and small farmers. The usual tactic in these struggles has been the blocking of roads and winning the support of the dozens of peasant communities who oppose mining extraction because the roads carrying supplies into and minerals out of the mines pollute rivers and their land, affecting their produce and livestock, and even causing deaths. The Tambo Valley inhabitants’ fears are based on the fact that their agriculture is heavily dependent upon the clean waters of the Tambo River basin.

In early September, miners decided to take their complaints to the capital, Lima. At the time, according to news radio RPP: Workers from dozens of mines (including from Tia Maria) who had been “on an indefinite strike since last week for salary improvements clashed last week with the police in front of the Ministry of Labor main building, which some protesters managed to enter by force. After the riots, 17 miners were arrested and taken to the Jesús Maria district police station.” Back in 2015, three Tia Maria miners and a policeman died in a protest.

Why, after 10 years of feasibility studies by Grupo Mexicano, along with reports on the ecological damage the mine would cause, and the ongoing demonstrations against it, have Vizcarra and his Mining Council now made the decision to approve it, reversing the position taken by the president less than three months ago?

The fundamental reason for the president’s ditching his “populist” attempt to posture as a friend of the comuneros is the deepening crisis of the economy of Peru and the region.

Mineral export revenues—the principal engine of Peru’s national economy—have dropped significantly, in large part as a result of the China-US trade war. Secondly, economic stagnation and a brutal increase in social inequality have created political instability . With the mass uprisings of the Chilean and Ecuadorean masses—on Peru’s southern and northern borders—there are growing expressions of fear within the bourgeois media of “contagion” leading to similar upheavals in Peru itself.

As result of these interrelated economic and social processes, foreign investors are pulling out of Peru. And, for the same reason, according to the business newspaper Gestionˆ, Peruvian multimillionaires are massively taking their money out of the country and investing it in overseas financial funds.

President Vizcarra’s shift on Tia Maria is bound up with the government’s attempt to stem this tide of capital flight and win back the favor of the transnational corporations and banks. The deputy minister of Mines recently said that the government is “focused on winning [by] 2021 mining projects [worth] up to US$ 21 billion in investments.” Thus, Vizcarra’s job is cut out for him: provide more profitable conditions for the transnationals while suppressing social opposition.

Such a policy will inevitably lead to a resurgence of class struggle under conditions in which the entire political establishment in Peru has been discredited by a massive corruption scandal.

This hatred for the government found expression on September 30, when President Vizcarra dissolved the Legislature—winning a slight gain in popularity. But the anger is directed at the corrupt executive and judicial branches of the government as well. The most popular slogan in demonstrations by students, public employees, teachers and health care workers has been “¡Que se vayan todos!”—Down with all of them!

As a result of an all-encompassing corruption scandal centered on bribes and kickbacks on contracts with the Brazilian mega construction company Odebrecht, the last five presidents are in jail, under house arrest or in exile. One of them, the Aprista Alan Garcia Perez, committed suicide minutes before he was to be arrested. Also, the last two Lima mayors are implicated in taking money from the company.

Democrats, media silent over identification of CIA “whistleblower”

Patrick Martin

Right-wing media sources have identified 33-year-old Eric Ciaramella, a career CIA analyst specializing in Ukraine and Russia, as the official who filed the “whistleblower” complaint that has become the pretext for House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Ciaramella was assigned to work at the White House in 2015, during the second term of Barack Obama, where he worked under then National Security Advisor Susan Rice as Ukraine director. He was held over for a time in the Trump administration, and eventually became personal aide to National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster before being sent back to the CIA in mid-2017, allegedly under suspicion of leaking anti-Trump material to the media.

The influential pro-Republican web site Real Clear Politics (RCP) published a report October 30 by its Real Clear Investigations unit, which named Ciaramella, a Connecticut-born registered Democrat. The story quoted former CIA analyst and Trump aide Fred Fleitz to this effect: “Everyone knows who he is. CNN knows. The Washington Post knows. The New York Times knows. Congress knows. The White House knows. Even the president knows who he is.”

The attorneys for the whistleblower, Mark Zaid and Andrew Bakaj, issued a statement declaring they could “neither confirm nor deny” that Ciaramella was their client. This is language virtually identical to that employed by the intelligence agencies themselves when one of their agents or informants has been identified publicly by the media or another government.

The RCP identification came in the course of a week when Republican congressmen appeared to be making special efforts to elicit information about the whistleblower from every witness who appeared behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee. There were several occasions where the Democratic chair of the committee, Adam Schiff, directed witnesses not to answer questions that might assist in exposing the whistleblower’s identity.

Ciaramella’s name has been widely publicized by right-wing publications like the Washington Examiner, ultra-right talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, and numerous Republican senators and congressmen. Senator Rand Paul, for example, tweeted the CIA analyst’s name to 2.4 million followers on Twitter.

Without further evidence, it is not completely certain that Ciaramella was the official who filed the complaint against Trump with Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

His biography, as reported in the media, definitely conforms to the profile of the whistleblower: the son of a Hartford bank executive, he majored in East European studies at Yale, went on to postgraduate work in that field in Harvard, worked briefly at the World Bank, and then joined the CIA. He speaks Russian, Ukrainian and Arabic, and was sent by CIA Director John Brennan to work on the Ukraine desk in the White House, where he accompanied Vice President Joe Biden on several trips to Ukraine.

There is, moreover, a striking connection to the House Intelligence Committee. Two people who worked with Ciaramella at the National Security Council during that period, Abigail Grace and Sean Misko, now work at the House Intelligence Committee under Schiff. Misko was reportedly hired by Schiff in August 2019, the same month that the whistleblower allegedly consulted with “staff” at the committee—not directly with Schiff—before filing his complaint with the inspector general.

A possible reason for caution in accepting the identification of the whistleblower as conclusive is that neither President Trump himself, nor his cheering section at Fox News, have yet made any reference to Ciaramella by name. Trump has confined himself to tweeting demands that the whistleblower come forward to testify in public, along with denunciations of him as a liar and Democratic partisan, but gave no indication that he had been identified.

But it is remarkable—and tends to reinforce the likelihood that Ciaramella is the whistleblower—that the anti-Trump media, including the bulk of the corporate-controlled newspapers and networks aligned with the Democratic Party and pushing the impeachment narrative, have refused to publish his name.

Publications like the New York Times and Washington Post have not even reported the fact that right-wing pro-Trump outlets claim to have discovered the identity of the whistleblower. Nor was this fact referred to on any of the five Sunday television interview programs on ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS and Fox.

The entire corporate media—including Fox in this case—is honoring the standing demand of the intelligence apparatus that its agents and operatives never be publicly named, even refusing to inform the American people that there are allegations, whether true or not, against a particular intelligence agent.

There was at least one sign that the campaign to expose the anonymous whistleblower was having an impact on the whistleblower himself. His attorney, Mark Zaid, said Sunday that his client was willing to answer in writing questions submitted directly by Republican congressmen, without going through Schiff or the Democratic majority on the House Intelligence Committee. This would be a less restrictive procedure than that adopted by the House of Representatives in a resolution passed Thursday morning, which gives Schiff effectively full control over the questioning.

The utter subservience of the congressional Democrats to the military-intelligence apparatus was summed up by Representative Peter Welch of Vermont, a member of the Intelligence Committee. “It turns out the deep state are deeply committed people in the military, deeply committed people in the intelligence community, deeply committed people in the State Department,” he told the Washington Post. “They’re coming forward to advocate for enduring democratic values.”

This formulation elevates the CIA, the greatest enemy of political liberty on the planet, organizer of military coups, assassinations and torture around the world for more than 70 years, to the status of guarantor of democratic rights for the American people. No more reactionary and, literally, counterrevolutionary, political perspective can be imagined.

According to the Real Clear Politics report that identified Ciaramella, this groveling before the CIA characterizes all the actions of the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. At several points, the agent’s name was mentioned in questions of witnesses, and these references are to be redacted before the transcripts of the committee hearings are made public this week or next.

The floating of Ciaramella’s name sets the stage for further political convulsions in Washington. The CIA itself could bring legal action against the publications and web sites that have identified him, although most legal protections apply only to covert agents, not analysts.

The House Intelligence Committee has scheduled a full round of closed-door hearings, perhaps its last week of such endeavors, but it is not clear whether the witnesses it has subpoenaed will appear. These include John Eisenberg, the White House attorney for the National Security Council, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton, now viewed by the Democrats as a potential “smoking gun” witness against Trump on the allegations that he withheld military aid from Ukraine to force that government to launch a public investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden.

DAAD Master’s Scholarships in German Studies 2020 for Sub-Saharan African Students

Application Deadline: To be Announced

Eligible Countries: Students from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

To be Taken at (Country): Nairobi, Kenya and Germany

Type: Masters

Eligibility:
(i) A Bachelor’s degree in Germanistik or DaF (in the major or minor)
(ii) Language proficiency (German language skills) at level B2 

Selection & Criteria:

• An independent selection committee consisting of experts in the field will review applications.
• After a preselection the best candidates will be invited to submit their application via the DAAD portal An interview by DAAD Office Nairobi (if applicable via video or telephone conference) for final selection will follow.
• Criteria for selection are academic achievements, proficiency in German and a convincing explanation of professional and personal reasons for choosing this study programme.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Participation at the two-year Master’s Programme in German Studies at the University of Nairobi incl. a research stay beginning of the second year at one of the German partner universities (TU Dresden, U Bielefeld, U Bayreuth or U Oldenburg)

• Monthly stipend of 240 Euros (for Kenyans) or
• Monthly stipend of 380 Euros (for Non-Kenyans)
• University fees
• Annual research allowance
• Insurance (only for Non-Kenyans)
• Travel allowance (only for Non-Kenyans)

Duration of Award:

• 24 months altogether, to start on 1st October every even year.
• In the first instance, an award of 12 months is granted, a renewal of another 12 months can be applied for at a later date.

How to Apply: Only students who are admitted to the Master’s programme may apply for a DAAD scholarship. Application for admission is done online: https://application.uonbi.ac.ke/index.php/CourseApplication/viewdetailslogin?deg_code=C531

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Global Fund for Women (GFW) Adolescent Girls Advisory Council: Call for Applications 2019

Application Deadline: 25th November 2019

Eligible Countries: Countries in Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the Award: Global Fund for Women is a global feminist fund that envisions a world where every woman and girl is strong safe, powerful, and heard. No exceptions.
We are a global champion for the rights of women and girls, using grant-making and advocacy to propel global movements for girls’ and women’s rights.  
Today, Global Fund for Women wants to ensure that the needs, ideas and solutions of girls – cis, transgender and gender non-conforming – are at the center of our work and governance. We firmly believe that girls are experts of their own lives and who best to guide and shape our work than girls themselves! 
The Adolescent Girl Advisory Council will play a critical role in finding, funding and amplifying girl-led groups and expanding their leadership, activism and movement building. 

Type: Grant

Eligibility: Are you:

• From the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa and 10 to 17 years old?
• A young feminist, who believes in a world where everyone should be treated equally and fairly, a world where girls’ and women’s rights matter, are respected and upheld? 
• Committed and passionate about social justice? 
• Ready to use your voice and take action to bring about change? 
• Willing to be part of the Adolescent Girls Advisory Council for a minimum period of two (2) years? 

Then Global Fund for Women wants to hear from you! 

Number of Awards: 9

Value of Award: As a member of the Adolescent Girls Advisory Council, your voice and ideas count!
Global Fund for Women wants to listen to you and, together, give adolescent girls around the world the support they need to become leaders and change-makers. 
You can expect to: 

• Share your knowledge, experience and give advice on issues related to girls and the region you represent (girl and regional expertise); 
• Give ideas and recommendations to the Adolescent Girls’ Rights team to help develop the program goal, key priorities, and ways to measure change (co-develop the Adolescent Girls’ Rights Program Strategy); 
• Identify groups and initiatives that are led by girls and that need support (financial, technical or other) (map girl-led groups); 
• Read proposals, discuss and provide suggestions for groups to fund together with Global Fund for Women staff (participate in Global Fund for Women’s grantmaking process); 
• Participate in key meetings and events to ensure girls’ voices are heard (attend key convenings). 

Duration of Award: 2 years

How to Apply: Click here to complete the application form in English.
This is a two-round selection process. 

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Rondine Cittadella della Pace Program in Conflict Resolution 2020 (Fully-funded to Italy)

Application Deadline: 24th November 2019

Eligible Countries: Countries in Middle East, Balkans and South Caucus regions; Mali, Russia, Colombia.

To be taken at (country): Italy

About the Award: Are you ready to meet your enemy? To learn the art of dialogue? To learn how to transform the conflict into an opportunity and generate social change? The World House is the experience that you are looking for!

Type: Training

Eligibility: Participants will be selected among candidates showing the following characteristics:

• Ages between 21-28;
• Sensibility and readiness to work on the topics of conflict of the country of origin and conflicts in general;
• Predisposition to leadership;
• Predisposition to public speaking and communication;
• Predisposition to team and group work and active listening;
• Predisposition to taking on roles of responsibility;
• Predisposition to team building and active involvement;
• Predisposition to civic engagement and volunteering;
• Predisposition to entrepreneurship and Social Innovation
• Project-oriented attitude, aiming at implementing social projects upon return to his/her home country;
• Knowledge about civil society and the non-profit sector;
• Sensibility about global sustainability or at least about some of the following topics: climate change, cooperation, welfare, civil and social economy;
• A wish to deal with conflict management, during his/her own personal professional growth

Please, note that Italian is the official language for communication and activities in Rondine. For this reason, the program starts with a 3-month intensive course of Italian language and culture. Knowledge of English is also required for a profitable participation in the Rondine training.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: During the whole period of the participant’s stay, the association takes responsibility of covering the following costs:

• Cost of the training activities in Rondine
• Cost of the lodging
• Cost of the academic or vocational training (enrolment fees, learning material, transportation)

A more detailed description of the economic aspects will be part of the Learning and Participation Agreement that the candidate will be asked to read and sign before the start of the trial period.

Duration of Programme: Two-year training program (July 2020 to June 2022)

How to Apply: Those interested in participating in the Rondine program must send the documents mentioned below before the Deadline to the following email addresses: international@rondine.org, or international.rondine@gmail.com
The required documents are:

• Application form in Link below
• Copy of passport, valid at least until June 2020;
• Motivation letter;
• Curriculum Vitae or Resume;
• Copy of the last qualification or certificate, diploma or degree earned;
• The social impact project proposal that the candidate is planning to develop during his/her experience at Rondine and to implement upon return to his/her home country. The project should include the following points:
• ◦Social and geographical contest in which the project will be developed;
• ◦Objectives of the project;◦Expected activities;◦Methodologies to be used;
• ◦Expected time-frame;
• At least one recommendation letter, signed by a professor from the student’s university, or a supervisor of a non-profit or association in which the candidate is active;
• Copy of the driving license;
• Notice on personal data protection (hand-signed

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

World Bank SDGs &Her 2020 Competition for Women Entrepreneurs (Funded to New York, USA)

Application Deadline: 10th January 2020,

Eligible Countries: International

To Be Taken At (Country): Washington D.C, USA

Type: Contest

Eligibility: To be eligible you must:

• be a woman owner of a business that has been in operation for at least 3 years
• own a micro-enterprise, with at least 1 and no more than 9 employees
• have a loan eligibility of under USD $10,000 or annual sales of under USD $100,000

Selection Criteria: Entries will be screened by a university partner and then judged by an expert panel. Judges will determine the winners based on the impact on the SDGs, vision and purpose, and clarity of the entries.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:The top winners will be recognized in April 2020 at an event on the margins of the 2020 World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. The stories of the winning women entrepreneur (and many other notable entries) will be shared through partners’ social media and websites.

How to Apply: Applicants complete a short online template, describing their work and linking their initiative/product to 1 or more SDGs.

Visit the Programme Webpage for Details

Chile and Her History of Western Interference

Peter Koenig

Chile is experiencing the largest and most serious political crisis and public unrest throughout Santiago and the country’s major cities, since the return to ‘democracy’ in 1990. A weeklong of fire, teargas and police brutality, left at least 20 people dead, thousands arrested and injured. More than 1.2 million people protested on Friday 25 October in the Streets of Chile’s capital, Santiago, not just against the 4% hike in metro-fares. That was the drop that brought the glass to overflow. Years, decades of neoliberal policies, brought hardship and poverty – and inequality to Chileans. Chile is the country with the world’s third largest inequality in wealth, with a Gini coefficient of close to 0.50 (zero = everybody has the same, 1.0 = one person possesses everything).

Important for Chileans to understand is not to believe President Sebastian Piñera’s smooth talk and compromising words. Whatever he says and apparently does in term of backtracking from his neoliberal policies is sheer deviation propaganda. Many of these policies he already initiated during his first term (2010 – 2014). They were kept alive by Madame Michelle Bachelet (2014 – 2018) under pressure from the Chilean financial system which remains closely linked (and funded) by Wall Street – and, of course, by her IMF advisers. Continuing Piñera’s job, she helped further dollarizing Chile to the tune of 70%, meaning that Chilean’s banks finance themselves on the US dollar markets, mostly in New York and London, rather than on the local peso market.

A healthy economy finances itself largely from nationally earned and accumulated capital. But more often than not, national oligarchs who possess this capital earned locally invest it outside their countries, as they trust more in foreign markets than in their own country. This is classic in many developing countries and particularly in Latin America, where the elite still – or again, after a brief democratic center-left respite in the 1990s and early 2000 – looks for success and capital gains to the northern masters in Washington.

Madame Bachelet was effectively bought by the system – a former socialist, having seen her father suffer under the Pinochet regime – she has become a sad turncoat. She demonstrated her ‘conversion’ by her recent report on Venezuela’s Human Rights – which was a travesty of the truth – a sham, full of lies and omissions. Another one who sold out – and became chief of a UN Office – the High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Commission. How did that happen? – Who pulls the strings behind the scenes for such appointments?

Since 2018, it’s again President Piñera, who is hellbent to complete his neoliberal project. Sebastian Piñera is one of the richest people in Latin America with a net worth of close to 3 billion dollars. How could he even remotely imagine what it is, having to take the subway every day to go to work, depending on pensions which are gradually reduced under his austerity programs, having to pay school tuition for a public service which is free in most countries and being subject to privatized health services – let alone, steadily depressed salaries and rising unemployment. Mr. Piñera has no clue.

Only 24 hours before the mass-protests started about a week ago throughout Chile, Piñera prided himself in public of leading the politically and economically most stable and secure country, the world’s largest copper producer, where foreign investors were keen to place their money, a “paradise island”, he called Chile, adding the country was a model for all of Latin America.

Did he really not sense what was happening? How his austerity measures – plus privatizing everything – was hurting and infuriating his compatriots to the point of no return? Or did he simply ignore it, thinking it may go away, people will continue swallowing economic tightening as they have done before? – Whatever – it is amazing!

As Piñera’s popularity has slumped to an all-time low of 14%, and protests erupted every day to a higher level, he started using people-friendly language and tone, promising increasing minimum wages, pensions and unemployment benefits. In a move to court the working class, on Monday 28 October he reshuffled his cabinet, replacing 8 of his Ministers with more “people-friendly” officials – but from all appearance it’s too little too late.

He addressed the people in a televised speech from the Presidential Palace, La Moneda, saying, “Chile has changed, and the government must change with it to confront these new challenges”. Nobody seemed to take these empty words seriously, as the masses assembled in front of La Moneda asking for Piñera’s resignation. The UN is sending a team to investigate Human Rights abuses by police and military. While Argentinians waited for regular general elections (27 October 2019) to oust their western-imposed neoliberal lynchpin president Macri, it is not likely that Chileans will have the patience to wait until 2022.

Ever increasing inequality and skyrocketing cost of living reached a point of anger that can hardly be appeased with Piñera’s apparent promises for change. For at least 80% of the people these conciliatory words are not enough – they don’t believe in a system led by a neoliberal multi-billionaire who has no idea on how common people have to make a living. They don’t believe in change from this government. It is highly possible, they won’t let go until Piñera is gone. They see what was happening in neighboring Argentina and don’t want to face the same fate.

Let’s just look at a bit of history. Going way back to the War of the Pacific, also known as the Saltpeter War confronting Chile with the Bolivian-Peruvian alliance, Chile counted with strong support from the UK – supplying war ships, weaponry and military advice. The war lasted from 1879 to 1884 and centered on Chilean claims of Bolivian’s coastal territories, part of the Atacama Desert, rich in saltpeter, coveted by the Brits. Thanks to the British military and logistics support, Chile won the war and Bolivia lost her access to the Pacific, making her a landlocked country. The Government of Evo Morales today is still fighting for Pacific Sea access in The Hague. Peru lost also part of her resources-rich coast line, Arica and Tarapacá.

Fast forward to 11 September 1973 – The Chilean 9/11 – instigated by the West, again. To be precise by Washington. In the driver’s seat of this fatal coup that changed Chile as of this day – and counting – if Piñera is not stopped – was Henry Kissinger. At the time leading up to the CIA instigated coup, and during the coup, Kissinger was US National Security Advisor (the role John Bolton occupied under Trump, until recently). Kissinger was sworn in a Secretary of State 11 days after the coup – 22 September 1973; a decent reward for whom is today the biggest war criminal still alive.

The murderous coup, followed by almost 20 years of brutal military rule by Augusto Pinochet (1973 to 1990), with torture, killings, human rights abuses left and right – was accompanied by an atrocious economic regime imposed by Washington hired, so-called “Chicago Boys” – ruining the country, privatizing social services, national infrastructures and natural resources – except for Chile’s and the world’s largest copper mine, CODELCO which was not privatized during the Pinochet years. The military would not allow it – for reasons of “national security”.

The large majority of the population was put under constant surveillance and threat of punishment / abuse if they would protest and not “behave” as Pinochet ordered. Pinochet, along with the western directed financial sector turned Chile into a largely impoverished, complacent population.

The British empire, at the time from London, later from Washington acting as the American empire, was always influential in Chile, expanding its influence and exploitation mechanism to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. But then, in the late 1990s and early 2000, Latin America stood up, democratically electing her own leaders, most of them left / center-left, a thorn in the eye of Washington.

How could American’s “Backyard” become independent? – Impossible. Hence the renewal of the Monroe Doctrine – which emanated from President James Monroe (1817 -1825), forbidding Europeans to interfere in any American territory. The Monroe principle has now been expanded to not allowing any foreign nation to even do business with Latin America, let alone forming political alliances.

While within a few years in the early 2000s, most of Latin America has been converted into puppets of the United States, Venezuela and Cuba stand tall. They are the corner stones, not to fall. They will be the pillars from where a new sovereign Latin America will rise. The Monroe Doctrine will not hold for a falling US empire – while peace seeking Russia and China are closely associating, commercially as well as militarily, with South America – in rebuilding and defending of their sovereignty.

In addition, people living under neoliberal regimes, under western financial and IMF-imposed killer austerity programs, are waking up, demonstrating and protesting in Ecuador and Argentina – where they just in democratic elections disposed of the US-imposed neoliberal despot, President Mauricio Macri. Now, Chile’s population is angry. Their patience is collapsing, their fear is gone. They want justice. They want to choose freely their leader – and it is not Sebastian Piñera.

Chileans’ fury is not just directed at Piñera’s latest distasteful economic and financial austerity measures. They – the Chileans, still suffer from measures dating back to the Pinochet area – the area of the western Chicago Boys, measures that have never been changed not even under the so-called socialist Madame Bachelet.

The Pinochet Constitution of 1980,under pressure from Chicago-educated advisors, the IMF and the dollar-based banking system, imposed a culture of economic neoliberalism and ideological conservatism. These key parameters, remnants from that epoch, are still valid as of this day:

Education – Chile has the most privatized and segregated education system of the 65 countries that use the OECD student evaluation standard, PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). In Chile higher education (university level) is not a right. In 1981 Pinochet has privatized most of the higher education institutions – giving access mainly to students from privileged families.

Health – in 1979 Pinochet created the Preventive Health Institutions, administered by private financial institutions, providing services that most Chileans cannot afford, i.e. the Fondo Nacional de Salud (FONASE), replacing the former publicly financed health system.

Public Transportation – Chile has one of the most expensive public transport systems in all of Latin America. It’s run by private for-profit concessionaires. In Chile a metro ride costs the equivalent of US$ 1.13, in Brazil US$ 0.99, in Colombia US$ 0.67, in Argentina US$ 0.43. Mr. Piñera’s recent 4% tariff increase was just the trigger for a much larger discontent.

Abortion – since 1939 voluntary and secure abortion was possible in Chile. In 1989 Pinochet made abortion under whatever circumstances a criminal delict.

Pensions – In 1980 Pinochet abandoned the old public system based on solidarity among pensioned adults and handed the accumulated funds to newly created and privately run AFPs (Administrations of Pension Funds), groups of private administrators of funds accumulated entirely by workers (no contributions by employers).

“Carabineros” – Chilean Police Officers – under Pinochet, Carabineros have been given powers with military characteristics. They have constantly and with impunity violated human rights. For years civil society groups have requested successive governments – and ultimately again the Piñera Government to change their regime to police officers, respecting human dignity and human rights. So far to no avail, as demonstrated by police interference in the most recent protests.

These Pinochet leftovers will no longer be accepted and tolerated by Chileans. Chile’s population, and in particular, the more than 1.2 million protesting in Santiago last Friday, are requesting nothing less than Piñera’s resignation and a people’s elected Constitutional Assembly to build a new country with less, much less inequality, more social justice – and, especially – without any remaining“Pinochetismo” – which today is still very present under Sebastian Piñera, who sent the military to control the mass demonstrations in Santiago and other large cities. Chileans are clearly saying, these days are over – we want our country back – we reclaim our national political and economic sovereignty – no more western interference.

Reminiscence of Soviet soft power and the way it influenced Third World

Punsara Amarasinghe & Sanjay Rajhans

The exact meaning carved by Joseph Nye in coining his notable concept “Soft Power”referred to a strong influence over states where as governments cannot totally get rid of its influence. Because, unlike the hard power which pushes states to the edge, the influence of soft power brings more sentimental effects to targeted states as their national consciousness is solidly smitten by its approach. In a changing world where many state actors arise from military and economic dimensions, the gravity arises from soft power plays a bigger role in shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. In fact, such a smart use of power inevitably brings more constructive results than triggering the fire arms. Today emerging super powers like India and China have been much driven by the idea of using soft power as an indispensable strategy in the realm of their regional and international geo political space. However, the soft power strategy used by Soviet Union during Cold War as a decisive factor in its ideological and political expansion towards the Global South has left an interesting legacy as it could successfully accomplish its mission in Third World countries. In particular, the countries gained their independence from Western powers began to woo the ideological whims propagated by Moscow in early 50’s and 60’s. The anti-colonial sentiments spread across newly independent states boosted their rapport with Soviet Union and this was much strengthen when Moscow provided ample funds to Third World countries in order to galvanize their national economies which was perceived by Soviet Union as an action of necessity. Stalin’s successor Nikitha Khrushchev showed a great zeal in influencing Third World states against the struggle against imperialism.

Nevertheless, the growth of Soviet soft power towards the Global South was mainly an offshoot from its grand cultural and intellectual heritage and the apt way it was used by Soviet Union to twist the arms of those Third World states. As an example the indomitable expansion of Russian literature among the young university students and intellectuals in post-colonial countries became prevalent as a counter narrative against much dominated Anglo American literature. For instance, the growth appeared to bloom in South Asia towards Russian literature was much notable as its attracted and aspired the young generation in Indian sub-continent in a time when the nation emerged after long colonial movement. The characters portrayed by prerevolutionary Russia authors like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Gogol invoked Asian sentiments to think about their own conditions under social inequality. It was such an incredible phenomenon how and why citizens from far distant countries like India and Sri Lanka in South Asia were fascinated with Russian literary ideals. From 60’s till the dissolution of USSR in 1991 Soviet Union spent a heavy amount of money on translating their great literary classics into local languages in South Asia, Africa and Latin America as a great cultural tool, which resulted in producing a class of citizens obsessed with Russian ethos in those regions.

The higher education assistance was another feature of Soviet soft power over third world countries. In African and Asian contexts, most of the ruling elites were products of either British or French higher educational institutes. Yet, most of the masses in rural areas with many economic deprivations had no access to privileged western universities, that went on to hinder their aspirations of pursuing higher studies beyond their states.  Since the dawn of Cold War the factor regarding higher education as a strategic tool was considered by both Soviets and Americans with greater importance. When the necessity of higher education was emphasized by African leaders at Addis Ababa Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa in 1961, Soviet leader Khrushchev declared the foundation of the People’s Friendship University in Moscow, especially for students from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Addressing 3,000 students at Jogjakarta University, Khrushchev affirmed that the Soviet government ‘wished to help the [developing] countries to train their national workforce, engineers, agronomists, doctors, teachers, economists’ and at the same time give a chance to ‘many talented young people coming from poor families’, who otherwise were ‘deprived of the possibility of realizing their wish to study in the Soviet Union.

As a matter of fact, the establishment of People’s Friendship University in Moscow was a greater achievement in Soviet soft power over the Third World States as it’s much promised ideals of the awakening of the East attracted many young students coming from decolonized states. Nourishing the socio cultural ties with non-Communist countries on the basis of idealizing the anti-imperial values intended to intensify the waves of communism in those countries with the eventual expectations of seizing the state power by workers. Another assumption held by Soviets of establishing a higher academic institute for the students from developing world was focused on two goals. Firstly, Soviet Union believed that the knowledge transfer to backward Asian African societies would accelerate their progress and secondly Moscow considered the graduates hailing from Soviet education would have a paternal gratitude towards their authority. The Soviet soft power alliance with the Third World reached its symbolic culmination, when People’s Friendship University was named after nationalist leader in Congo Patrice Lumumba, which was an indication of Moscow for their solidarity with non-Communist states in their struggle against imperialism.

The aftermath of the establishment of People’s Friendship University crated a much conspicuous platform for Soviet Union to execute their soft power and its outcomes became much effective as most of the students studied in People’s Friendship University excelled themselves fields like academia and diplomacy in their own countries. Nevertheless, it is true to admit that Soviet soft power strategy was not always successful, particularly the degrees awarded by People’s Friendship University were discriminated when pro-Western governments came into power in non –Communist states in Asian and African countries. For instance, the pro-Western government in Sri Lanka from 1965 to 1970 marginalized Soviet graduates from employment opportunities, labeling them as leftists. On the other hand, there were situations Moscow expelled Asian and African students, when they professed their dissenting opinions about Soviet system.

The soft power strategy adopted by Soviet Union to approach Third World countries was predominantly confined to higher education, yet the outcomes emerged from such investments brought long term results to Soviet Union. Especially, increase of alacrity to learn Russian among students in the Global South saw a great Slavic cultural infiltration into those Russian speaking countries and its influences continued to grow in many ways. The in 60’s Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, New Delhi established a center for Soviet and Central Asian studies which attracted many Indian scholars and with its growing political influence Russian language became quite a popular. However, the chaotic economic stagnation of Soviet Union in late 80 and its immediate effect resulted in the disintegration of Soviet Union brought the very end to Third World’s romanticism with Soviet culture. The idealistic slogans on world communist society and dictatorship of proletarians were faded into oblivion at the ebb of Soviet decline and the emergence of Russian federation had no time and space to persist their soft power in the Third World as a result of the wave of economic and social instabilities they faced in the 90’s.

Today, more than 25 years after the collapse of Soviet Union, Russia again stands as a strong nation and its recent geo political expeditions have given a palpable sign the Russia yearns to restore its lost glory in the global arena. In fact, Moscow is well aware of the great importance of using soft power in 21st century power politics. Yet, the pivotal question appearing from post-Soviet era is how would modern Russia locates her soft power before growing expansion of Indo-Sino soft power contest in Global South. The steeping increase of Confucius centers and Indian cultural hegemony through its most colorful culture would always mar the idea of restoring Russian soft power beyond Ruski Mir. But, we should not easily forget still there is a nostalgia been pervaded in the memories of the old generation bureaucrats, diplomats, statesmen and academics in the third world countries, which always would pave the path to restore its soft power in diplomacy at least to a certain extend.