Alex Mercouris Continues to Play Dumb While Pepe Escobar Sees the Light

Please read this, Mr. Escobar.

My recent article about Mercouris’ strange lying by omission about Prigozhin’s dire assessment of the situation at the front triggered a response from him and his partner Christoforou.

They got together to have one of their video chats and clearly reading from my article on the topic, studiously ignored all the points that Prigozhin brought up. Again. They also refused to acknowledge me by name.

Lol.

I thought I was perfectly cordial in the appeal that I wrote to them. It just seems rude to not acknowledge me. I mean I understand people on Twitter taking screenshots from my articles and then posting them as if they were their own analyses (while keeping me in their ban lists), but idk, I guess I just expected better from my fellow Orthodox anti-Globalist freedom fighters over at the Duran.

Oh well. It was worth a shot. Now, at least, we know where they stand. They can no longer feign ignorance because they clearly had my entire bulletpoint write-up in front of them and STILL ignored everything that they didn’t like and then, instead of addressing any of the claims, simply said that Prigozhin was having a mental breakdown and could not be taken seriously going forward.

But who is really having a break with reality here?

Let’s just say that if I had to make a bet, I’d expect to see Mercouris running around naked and screaming in the street by the end of the summer and not Prigozhin.

But all is not doom and gloom today for it appears that I have made my way into a Pepe Escobar article as well. Boy, that really made my day. Pepe is finally seeing the light!

He writes:

The bombshell revelations caused serial ripples among Russian experts yet not among the English-speaking crowd, which seems not to have grasped the enormity of it all, as Russian insiders who analyzed the whole interview in detail told me. Here is a noteworthy exception, focusing on the key bullet points.

The hyperlink is to this blog. And yes, either they’re not “grasping it” or they are “lying about it”. But this is a distinction without a difference because the result is the same. Here is what Pepe had to add:

There’s no question: if Prighozin is essentially telling the truth, this is – literally – nuclear. Either Prighozin knows everything nearly everyone doesn’t, or this is a spectacular maskirovka.

Yet facts on the ground since February 2002 seem to support his main accusation: the Russian army can’t properly fight because of a completely corrupt bureaucratic gang right at the very top of the MoD, all the way to Shoigu, all of them only interested in making a financial killing.

And it gets worse: under a rigidly bureaucratized environment, commanders at the frontlines have no autonomy to take decisions and quickly adapt, and need to wait for orders from far away. That should be the main reason for the Kiev counter-offensive standing a chance of imposing dramatic upsets.

Prighozin is definitely not alone among Russian patriots in voicing his analysis. In fact there’s nothing new: he was just more forceful this time. Strelkov has been saying the exact same thing since the start of the war. That even coalesced into an “Angry Patriots Club” releasing an explosive video on April 19.

So here we have a small but very vocal group bearing impeccable patriotic credentials sounding a serious alarm bell: Russia runs the risk of losing this proxy war entirely unless dramatic changes take place right away.

Or, once again, this could be brilliant maskirovka – leaving the enemy totally misdirected.

Mr. Escobar, since you read my site, let me address this part directly to you. Let’s both be honest here. There is no maskirovka or “kayfabe” going on and we both know it. I understand that you have to soften the blow because your audience expects a certain product from you and your writing, but, let us be honest amongst ourselves at least.

I believe you do a lot of good work, especially with your work for MIR, which proves to me that you walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk. Clearly, you care about Russia and strongly believe in creating an alternative world system and this is something that we share in common. On the basis of this mutual understanding, allow me to share a criticism of your approach, as best I understand it.

You cannot be soft with the Kremlin people and hope that their better judgement will triumph and common sense measures will be taken to fight the Globalist agenda. If there is any maskirovka going on, it is on the part of the Russian Deep State, which is in bed with the West. Furthermore, these people only understand negotiations from a position of strength and the pursuit of personal profit. By continuing to carry water for them and singing their praises while they literally conduct a controlled demolition of Russia will not win you their good favor and give your proposals a green light. These people simply see patriots who repeat their talking points as useful idiots, unfortunately. I would encourage you to speak to Russia’s patriot community - to people who actually do share the same values as you do - and hear for yourself what they have to say about the Kremlin and how it is run and how all their efforts over the years have been quashed. If there were anyone actually interested in this multipolar world and mounting resistance to the global oligarchy, it would be them, not the people working on Rublevka.

The way to actually effect a positive agenda is to critique one’s own side and to force the structures that are, in theory anyways, supposed to be serving the Russian people to do their jobs. There is no point in attacking Ukraine and proving that they are an evil NATO-NAZI-CRUSADER!!! state now that we are more than a year into the two week special military operation. The lines have already been drawn in people’s hearts and minds. Those who would support Russia are already on team Z and those who would support NATO and Ukraine are already on team ZOG. Yelling at Kiev won’t do anything because they are the enemy and they won’t listen to us. But yelling at Moscow to stop funding Kiev, stop stealing money from the military, stop doing all it can to surrender gracefully and return to the status quo - that is something that we ought to be doing and doing RIGHT NOW before it is too late.

It is always your own side that needs the harsh rhetoric to shape up, not the enemy.

Just look at what Tucker Carlson was fired for. He alone was willing to hold his own party’s officials’ feet to the fire and call them out for fighting a fake war against the DNC and the Deep State. He called them out for being traitors, for playing footsie and for not defending the interests of the people that they claim to represent. For that reason, he had to go. That is the same reason that people like Strelkov, Prigozhin and others draw so much ire from the fakers who are supposed to be on our side. True patriots would actually like to see their side win, whereas the controlled patriots just want the profits to keep rolling in. You will never see the fake patriots’ lives put on the line. Meanwhile, actual patriots in Russia are being assassinated left and right all under the watchful eye of the FSB.

Things are moving very quickly now.

Once Russia loses this war, the fight will simply move into Russia proper, and you need to consider now that when this happens, the government and the oligarchs and the state media and the spooks will all work together to suppress any rumblings of Russian discontent at the handing of the war, the continued looting of the economy, and the importation of Central Asia to replace the native population.

You may not be convinced yet that Prigozhin, Strelkov and too many other prominent names in the Russian patriotic community to name at this point are telling the truth about these topics. And, all things considered, that is fine, because you are entitled to your opinions. But I have to wonder what all of these pro-Kremlin pundits and prophets in the English blogosphere will do when the new battle lines between patriots and Kremlinites are drawn? Should they continue supporting the current government, they will effectively be protecting the people with the same ideological position as the satrap elite Yeltsinites of the 90s.

The question for all of us is: who will we side with? Who will you side with?

So far, I think it is clear who Ritter and the Duran and Martynov will side with.

But Russell Bentley AKA Donbass Cowboy has also come out for team patriot and reposted my article as well. The scales have fallen from his eyes and he is furious at what he sees. Rightly so. He actually bled for Donbass, which is more than most can say. We’ve also got Slavsquat on our side - the man is a true trooper and he regularly encourages me to write more … and more and more. If it weren’t for his incessant prodding, I’d probably just write an article a week and leave it at that. Damn him!

Maybe Prigozhin is just really stressed out?

But on a serious note, if there was ever a time to think about the bleak future, it would be now, in the calm before the storm. Mr. Escobar, we could have a chat if you are interested. Either way, thanks again for reading my article and presenting it fairly. You have proven yourself to be far more honest and interested in the truth than anyone working over at the Duran.

**

I last wrote that it seemed that Prigozhin had secured a W against the MoD and gotten a guarantee that the frozen supplies would indeed be provided to him. However, subsequent statements by Prigozhin appeared hours later that seem to indicate that any such declarations of victory were premature.

Events are unfolding too quickly for me to cover them all. Any one of the happenings that occurred this week would have provided enough fodder for discussion on their own for at least a week per happening.

So, we have:

• the drama surrounding Wagner which develops every 12 hours

• the drone strike on the Kremlin

• the attempted assassination of Zakhar Prelepin

• the Ukrainian strikes on key Russian infrastructure

• the movement and massing of Ukrainian troops

• the panicked evacuation in Zaporozhye

• and more

All of these topics deserve a deep dive. I was going to write an in-depth article about Prelepin and the strangeness surrounding the ongoing terrorism campaign against Russian patriots. Maybe I’ll get around to it within the week.

But the Prigozhin drama really takes the cake, in my mind.

The reason? Well, for one, it threatens to undermine the 5D narrative, which, I’m just going to start calling the Kremlin narrative going forward because it is indistinguishable from state propaganda at this point. And really, it is the topic that I feel like I am capable of explaining and contextualizing the best. I also want to force the topic because it has resonated with people in the West and the East.

Stay tuned for a monster article about Prigozhin’s prospects tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you could spread this article so that Pepe and others see it, I’d be eternally grateful.

Also, get behind the paywall to support my work. Seven of you went ahead and answered the call last time. I need twenty more of you to go ahead and lend me your support by the end of June.

I’m serious. “Dark Clown Mode” is more than just a threat.

Thanks.