Apologies for this image – it was unavoidable

 

The end is nigh – of this dreadful year, that is. Firstly: apologies! I had planned to write a ‘thought-piece’ or two during the days after Christmas, but alas! I came down with the dreaded lurgy … nuff said. And so, as I slowly regain my mental faculties (life with cotton-wool inside one’s skull ain’t no fun), there was one piece of ‘news’ reported across our mighty MSM – on Tony Blair.

These reports are about the latest documents published by the National Records Office. They make for juicy reading. Firstly though, ‘for the record’, Pele died. That’s the most important news item today, it’s on all the front pages which you can check out yourselves in the usual place (link).

And so to Tony B – and Putin. The headlines alone are revealing. Keep in mind that ‘our MSM’, the propaganda arm of Whitehall, have been working hard to make a Labour government palatable. Of course, it’s complicated when yon former Labour PM must not be shown to have had political ideas which don’t suit the current ‘thing’.

The fact that Blair was trying to get Putin to ‘the top table’ is undisputed. One of the main points made in the reports is that Blair acted despite ‘misgivings’ of his Whitehall officials. The other is that he was ‘courting’ Putin … Firstly then the report in Auntie Beeb. Under the headline “National Archives: Tony Blair said Putin should be on ‘top table’” we read (here and in the quotes below the emphases are mine):

“Tony Blair argued Vladimir Putin should be given a seat at the world’s “top table” despite misgivings from officials, newly released files reveal. Papers released by the National Archives show in early 2001, the then-prime minister believed it was important to encourage the new Russian president to adopt Western values. But officials questioned if the ex-KGB spy could be trusted.” (link)

This report seems to keep closely to the documents released, without any major spin. Note though that ‘silver cufflinks’ are being mentioned: “The Russian President was the first world leader to be given a pair of silver No 10 cufflinks, as a birthday gift in October 2001.” (link). Next, let’s look at the headlines in our glorious morning papers, starting with the DM:

“Tony Blair wanted Vladimir Putin to be at the international ‘top table’… but officials feared Russian leader could not be trusted, newly-released documents reveal – New files have revealed that Blair believed Putin was at heart a ‘Russian patriot’  – The former PM thought it was vital to encourage Putin to adopt Western values” (link)

Silver cufflinks aren’t mentioned in that report. Perhaps the editors of the DM, a red top aimed at us plebs, didn’t think this was worth mentioning while the broadsheets gasp about yon cufflinks, as sign of how Blair ‘courted’ Putin. Next, see the DT’s headline:

“Sir Tony Blair courted Vladimir Putin despite officials’ doubts – Former PM was keen to reach out to the Russian president and give him a seat at the top table, newly released archives show” (paywalled link)

Interesting how the DT’s editors take the knee to ‘Sir Tony Blair’ in their headline. They alone mention his title. Well, it’s nearly a year since was thus elevated in the New Year’s Honours List 2022. In any case, the DT ‘report’ is a perfect example of spin and ‘non-reporting’, with acres of sentences of what ‘other people;’ thought, from the US president Bush to, of course, our mandarins. This is how that ‘report’ begins:

“The name Vladimir Putin is now a byword for villainy and deceitfulness – yet two decades ago, the desire to integrate Russia into the geopolitical establishment was such that Sir Tony Blair was calling for him to have a seat at the top table. Newly released documents from the National Archives reveal how, in the wake of Sept 11, Sir Tony and other Western leaders thought that Moscow could be engaged with and convinced to work in favour of counter-terrorism and the liberal world order. Just months after Putin had shocked the West with his army’s brutal destruction of the Chechen capital Grozny, he was being courted by Sir Tony, who visited him in Russia in March 2000.” (paywalled link)

Just relish the spin, the interpretation from hindsight, e.g. the date of that first ‘courting visit’ – 2000 – while omitting the theme of islamic terrorism and elegantly overlooking the fact that Blair’s October 2001 visit was meant to keep Putin online for the start of the war in Afghanistan. Still, this sentence shows that, hate him or not, Blair had at least some grasp of political issues:

“In a summary of a Feb 2001 phone call between Sir Tony and Dick Cheney, then the US vice-president, the prime minister described Putin as a “Russian patriot” with a “similar mindset” to Charles de Gaulle. Sir Tony told Mr Cheney that he was “less critical than some” over Putin’s brutality in Chechnya and that “there was a danger of the West being naive” on the issue. […] Sir Tony had been courting Putin for nearly a year at that stage, with his visits sparking controversy over legitimising Russia’s brutal tactics in Chechnya.” (paywalled link)

Of course, the various spin masters omit to provide context, unless it suits the narrative of ‘Putin bad now’ because he was ‘always bad, brutal and cruel’. And so the mandarins’ doubts then are painted as being justified now, because of the war in the Ukraine. And then there are yon cufflinks – silver, not gold! – again:

“The prime minister was not deterred, however, and another memo reveals that Sir Tony travelled to Moscow in Oct 2001 with a set of “silver No 10 cufflinks” as a birthday present for the Russian president.” (paywalled link)

Of course, no PM or President ever brings little gifts when visiting their counterparts! However, before we applaud Blair’s ‘resistance’ to the mandarins, we better recall ‘that’ war in Afghanistan which officially started on the 7th of October 2001. This gives a different light to Blair’s ‘courting’ with yon cufflinks. Thankfully, the internet doesn’t forget, so take a look at this report in the Grauniad from the 5th October 2001:

“Tony Blair yesterday praised the strong leadership of the Russian president Vladimir Putin as he sought assurances that US and British military assets could be used in the former Soviet republics bordering northern Afghanistan.” (link)

Ah! So this wasn’t so much a ‘courting’ but a last-minute attempt to try and pull Putin onto the side of the ‘alliance’. Note also that at that time there was no question about ‘brutal Putin’ and Chechnya because islamic terrorism was a threat which the USA experienced on their own soil. How times change …

And so to The Times which deserves the first price for spin and obfuscation. The headline “Tony Blair wanted to welcome Vladimir Putin with birthday cufflinks – Newly-released documents show how Tony Blair wanted to encourage the Russian leader to “reach for western attitudes” (link, paywalled) is a veritable spin feast and it gets worse in the ‘report’. It’s more concerned with what Berlusconi said, and with what Cheney said than with the cufflinks or Blair’s ‘courting of Putin’.

The mixing up of timelines in that article is extraordinary. There’s mention of ‘officials’ concerns’ from a note in January 2001, ‘barely a year since Putin came to power’. Someone else just ‘came to power’ in that month: a certain President GW Bush and his vice Dick Cheney. Thus the ‘notes’ on Blair talking to Cheney are made to look ‘normal. The last paragraph in this Times article is important:

“Putin told Blair that he did not want to be seen as anti-Nato, but the Russian defence minister Igor Sergeyev told his Nato counterparts that further enlargement would be a major political error, in response to which Moscow would “take appropriate steps”.” (link, paywalled)

This draws a very interesting line from 2001 to 2022: NATO, Western politicians and our own mandarins have known Putin’s attitude for all those decades. They’ve ‘counselled’ our PMs not to trust Putin ever since, conveniently overlooking the fact that they themselves and their policies were not exactly shining examples of trustworthiness. I’ll not mention the wars and uprisings which took place in the years since, from Afghanistan to Iraq.

I leave it to you to wonder why our lovely MSM keep harping on about Blair having ‘courted’ Putin: is this a suspiciously ‘common interpretation’ because Blair was ‘naive’ not to follow his mandarins’ advice? And is Putin bad also because he didn’t stay ‘courted’ by that eminent politician Blair? Hm …. And so, finally, a report on one other released paper, only picked up by the DM:

“Tony Blair aide wanted to gag Britain’s free press when he was Prime Minister, papers show – Jeremy Heywood said he became frustrated by inaccurate reporting – His appeal for ‘accuracy regulation’ was shot down by Tony Blair’s advisers – Policy adviser Ed Richards said it would be ‘probably suicidal to try’” (link)

Haven’t times changed! Now, twenty years on, we know that the mandarins didn’t let go of this: Whitehall has a very long memory, and our benighted politicians are wax in their hands. Since that time, they’ve managed to avoid making this attempt to ‘gag the free press’ into something ‘acceptable’

That’s why we get spin and ‘narratives’, not facts and why, twenty years later,  our ‘press’ is FINO: Free In Name Only. Have a good day.

 

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