The Illarionov Case: A Deeper Dive

Dear Readers:

“Terrorists like this white guy keep falsely claiming that Biden stole the election…. In happier news: a sweet kitten was rescued from a tree yesterday…”

So, I was just watching some talking heads on American Mainstream Media, as they breathlessly discussed all the preparations to militarily secure the White House, Capitol Hill, and also the Capitols of all 50 states, in preparation for the Biden-Harris Coronation on January 20.  Never have we seen such movement of men and armor since the Iraq invasion!

“Who knew,” the male meat puppet opined, “after the act of terrorism that we suffered on 9/11 that we would now be defending ourselves against terrorists from among our own people?”  To which the female meat puppet nodded her pretty head sadly, “Precisely…”  You Readers think I am making this up?  I swear I am not!  It’s really come to this.

The Latest Glitch In The Matrix

So, this past week Professor Robinson, on his blog, wrote about the Illarionov case, and mostly alluding to the op-ed he wrote for RT here.  While the Professor focuses on the irony of the Cato Institute firing a prominent critic of Putin because he (=Illarionov) wrote some things that are not tolerated in the new American mainstream, there is another juicy part of the story involving Russian diaspora politics.  And hence I have this interesting piece from VZGLIAD, written by Artem Filippov.  So, let us work our way through this, shall we?

Illarionov: “Would you die for my right to express my opinions?”

Voltaire: “Moi? Pas chance.”

As the repressions of the Thought Police increase with every day — well, to be sure, Illarionov has not been arrested or sent to the American Gulag, just fired from his job at the Cato Institute, but still… — his plight raises some extremely interesting questions, not just about American politics, or Russian politics, but about the role of the Russian diaspora in American politics.  Should diaspora Russians even be allowed to take sides in American politics?  Some say no.  I say why not?  It’s not like Americans don’t stick their snouts into everybody else’s business, across the globe.  Anyhow, in his piece, Professor Robinson noted some rather egregious examples, such as openly racist statements by the likes of Yulia Latynina.  I have also noted, in some of my blogposts, the openly right-wing and even racist interventions of Russian Liberals when commenting on the summer riots and Black Lives Matter, and suchlike.

Although his contract with the Cato Institute ostensibly guaranteed him the freedom to express his journalistic opinions (and the Institute always had the right to attach some kind of disclaimer, e.g., “The opinions of this writer don’t necessary correspond… yada yada”), they chose to get rid of Illarionov altogether.  And here is the most egregious part:  Illarionov didn’t even express these Verboten opinions on their site, but rather in a Russian language blog, “Live Journal”, where he penned, on 8 January, a piece entitled The Reichstag Burning of 2021.  Wherein he voiced the following positions, dubbed (by those whose opinions matter) as baseless conspiracy theories:

1. Trump actually won the election, but Biden stole it by cheating [an opinion shared by 40% of Americans polled, which, if my math is correct, makes roughly 131 million Americans potential terrorists and seditionists!]
2. The Capitol Hill riot was actually a conspiracy/diversion organized by the Democratic Party with the assistance of Black Lives Matter/Antifa provocateurs.  [yalensis:  I am personally dubious of that claim, but you never know.  What we can be sure of is that Antifa, if it was involved, probably contains more FBI agents than actual members!]
3. Trump had nothing to do with inciting the rioters.  The Capitol Hill police allowed the “rioters” to enter, which is actually proven fact when you view several videos on youtube.  Although it could also be the Capitol cops just felt outnumbered!

Illarionov, like most Russian Liberals, has toxic views on the American race issue.  Russian Liberals (and Conservatives as well) seem to despise African-Americans, regard them as moochers and seekers of government handouts, not to mention violent criminals and rioters.  They point to the excesses of the BLM summer riots.  [Which I don’t deny, even though I trend to supporting sincere black activists.  BLM, in general, is a mixed bag, containing some well-meaning people fighting against police brutality and the Prison Industrial Complex; but there can be no doubt the movement also contains people beholden to the Democratic Party; FBI infiltrators and provocateurs; not to mention a fraction of toxic black nationalists, that part is true, but everything needs to be seen in context, and the Russian Liberals certainly don’t get the context at all, from what I have seen!]

Ann Althouse

When not busy being wrong on American issues,  Illarionov has a rancid history of being wrong on Russian issues as well:  Filippov points out that the Russian dissident promoted the conspiracy theory of the Kremlin blowing up that plane carrying the Polish President.  “However, this does not mean that he is always wrong about everything,” Filippov adds.  To prove his point that Trump had nothing to do with inciting the rioters, Filippov cites Law Professor and blogger Ann Althouse, who studied transcripts of all of Trump’s relevant speeches from that week.  Ms. Althouse did not find one word in them which could be construed as incitement to violence.  Which means the Nancy Pelosi is full of you know what – surprise surprise!

Illarionov’s “master conspiracy theory” which reads as plausible (highly likely?) goes as follows:  The Democratic Party itself engineered the Capitol events, just like Hitler did the Reichstag.  Why would they do that?  To establish a monopoly one-Party government (plausible), in order to carry out their political program of pro-black racism and radical socialism … WAIT!  you just lost me there!  Biden a socialist?  hahahahahha (not plausible at all!)  Although Biden did say, at one point in the campaign, that anybody who didn’t vote for  him could not possibly be black.

Okay, so clearly Illarionov is a kook.  Or, he could be right about the conspiracy, but just wrong about its goals.  Either way, it seems to me that he had the right to pontificate about this in his blog and without being fired from his other job.  Especially since the Cato Institute prides itself on its “libertarianism” and promotion of free speech.  But even they got cold feet when they found out what Illarionov was saying on his Russian blog…

Which raises THE most interesting question of all!  How did Cato find out what Illarionov wrote on his Russian-language blog?  Highly dubious that anybody else at Cato can read Russian.

Divided Diaspora

There is a Russian saying I have heard, I can’t remember the exact words, but it goes something like:  “When the Pans [Polish masters] are fighting among themselves, even the Serfs must take sides.”

Which is exactly what is happening here!  The civil war within the American ruling class, — their ferocious battle as to who can best exploit the living plasma from the veins of the American people — has spread to the ranks of the peons, even international peons like Russian Liberals!  So, they are forced to take sides:  Biden vs Trump.  Not unlike the War of the Roses:  The House of Plantagenet vs the House of Lancaster.  And may God protect any ignorant peasant who gets in their way, when the Lords are going at each other with their swords, like wild beasts.

Pundit Filippov has his own “conspiracy theory” as to who might have ratted out Illarionov to Cato:  Namely, another Russian dissident goes by the name of Ilya Zaslavsky.  Notable Yeltsinite activist and politician from the 1990’s.  His wiki (which still shows his former boyish face even though he’s in his 60’s now) notes that Zaslavsky’s political idol is Ronald Reagan.  And I reckon that tells you all you need to know about this deplorable man.

Many years ago Zaslavsky left Russia and emigrated to the U.S. where he has been making his living trashing Putin and the Russian “kleptocracy”.  A few days ago, he apparently came upon Illarionov’s Live Journal post and considered it “highly dangerous”, according to the journal Politico.   So, he decided to do his bit to muzzle a rival.  Zaslavsky has admitted writing up a “synopsis” of Illarionov’s notorious post and sending it to the Cato Institute.  So, this is how they learned their employee’s deepest thoughts about the American election.

A much younger Ilya Zaslavsky looked a lot like Mr. Bean.

What is particularly hilarious is that Zaslavsky took the time to chide Illarionov for even getting involved in American politics at all (like, he himself didn’t?), explaining in his note that newcomers from Russia do not have the right to criticize the American political structure; that Americans will figure it out for themselves without foreign interference [priceless!]; and that Democracy is only meaningful when it has the right to defend itself.  “In this case also,” Filippov notes, “not without the help of a snitch.”

Filippov ends by commenting on the same irony as many others have noted:  that in “totalitarian” Russia dissidents like Illarionov or Zaslavsky have complete freedom to verbally attack the Russian government and leadership; and even have their own media channels on which to do so.  Whereas, in America, “the cradle of democracy”, only acceptable political opinions are tolerated nowadays, in the media.  Such is the Winter of Our Discontent.