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The Russians are meddling again, this time in Chile, warns US diplomat

RT | October 26, 2019

Guess who’s stirring mass anti-government protests in Chile? Anybody? That’s right, it’s the Russians, at least according to Washington’s chief Latin American diplomat.

Speaking before a congressional committee hearing on Wednesday, State Department diplomat Michael Kozak suggested that “foreign actors” were stoking protests in Chile. Pressed on the statement by Latin-American news agency EFE on Friday, Kozak elaborated further.

“We have identified on social networks false accounts that emanate from Russia, which are people who pretend to be Chilean, but in reality all the message they are doing is trying to undermine all Chilean institutions and society,” he was quoted on Friday by Chilean media.

Kozak didn’t provide evidence, but if he did, it likely wouldn’t prove anything. Accusations of Russia’s social media meddling have been chucked around Washington for nearly three years now, and the best that social media ‘bot hunters’ have managed to come up with is lists of meme posting accounts that they “believe” are “potentially” Kremlin-backed, based on the claims of NATO-backed think tanks, professional ‘Russiagaters’ and Democrat intelligence officials.

In Chile, the protests were not sparked by Moscow-based trolls, but by a planned public transport fare hike. They have since evolved into a nationwide show of rage against the neoliberal policies of President Sebastian Pinera, whose proposed reforms have failed to tamp down public anger. At least 19 people have died over the last eight days, and more than 6,000 have been arrested, as protests descended into riots and clashes with police.

“Chile has a constitutional problem in terms of laws in terms of assigning a budget to the social sector and the non-social sector,” political analyst Francisco Coloane told RT. “There is a very strong pressure from the private sector not to make structural change.”

As the country’s first right-wing president since the end of US-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet’s government in 1990, Pinera has previously attempted to privatize Chile’s education system, resulting in student demonstrations in 2011. The country’s pension system, water supply, and healthcare system are all fully or almost fully privatized.

The result is a country that enjoys Latin America’s highest per-capita income, yet the highest inequality in the OECD.

But why dig into systemic factors and risk undermining the neoliberal consensus? Better to dust off the tinfoil hat and blame Russia instead.

October 26, 2019 - Posted by | Deception, Russophobia | , ,

6 Comments »

  1. Kozak is a Jew. A Carbon tax is a Jew goal. Chile is rioting over a carbon tax. Kozak is giving cover to his own kind.

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    Comment by Robert Browning | October 26, 2019 | Reply

  2. Could anyone point me to one of these Russian “false accounts”? I would love to view one out of curiosity..

    Like

    Comment by GGH | October 26, 2019 | Reply

      • Ron, I spun through this link and sublinks; kind of chaotic, bouncing all over the page…can you identify ian56? I don’t think I saw a name or affiliation. Does he have something to do with the UK Salisbury caper? In general, I like a lot of what I see, but my brief scan didn’t show, e.g., Pedophile/Mossad Agent Epstein, and that bothers me.

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        Comment by roberthstiver | October 27, 2019 | Reply

        • Ian was claimed on Sky News as being a Russian bot by a poorly prepared intelligence “source”. He put up a remarkable defense.

          Perhaps this link better describes the media event:

          http://ian56.blogspot.com/2018/04/sky-statement-why-im-not-russian-bot.html?view=timeslide

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          Comment by aletho | October 28, 2019 | Reply

          • Thanks very much for this!–excellent/informative/educational/disheartening! (I should have but didn’t click on the various links — but one that I did click on was a “404-unavailable”; I also clicked on the Robert Fisk link but my computer froze on me for a scary minute…I feared that I had been hacked or otherwise compromised.) I think I recall correctly that the Perle-Clean Break episode had the direct involvement, perhaps instigation, of (meddlin’) Netanyahu…. I believe I read at another page of ian56 his revulsion for “neolibs,” equivalent to his revulsion for neocons. They (in my limited observation and belief) are the two “coins” of the Dem-Rep duopoly that seek “full-spectrum global [Zio]dominance”…I think we’re recently seen an example in Killary’s “Russian asset” assault on Tulsi Gabbard…the neolibs are determined that Tulsi not change the paradigm, nudge a change to the Dem mindset, and “make America sane again.” In yesterday’s/Sunday MSM rag here in Honolulu, I saw the graphic results of an informal reader poll (requesting opinion on Tulsi’s decision not to seek House re-election in 2020 and instead concentrate on her POTUS candidacy): fully 82 percent voted “Bye: not a Tulsi fan anyway” [11% = “Disappointed–she’s a solid Congresswoman”; 7% = “Support–want to see her in national role”] {I don’t know the population of the 24-hour ‘snap’ poll…3,000?} This tells me that the Hawaii populace, traditionally staunchly liberal and Dem, has been conditioned by the Dem neolibs to reject any appearance of a dissenting presence like Tulsi. Voila. Local rag columnists have been uniformly dismissive of and scornful toward Tulsi. I took on two of them a week ago via e-mail riposte to their screeds…no response one way or the other, so I’m not worth even that “courtesy.” Hope this is not too rambling or irrelevant….

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            Comment by roberthstiver | October 28, 2019 | Reply


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