I am a Putin bot? Take a look, please.

I confess, me Almuth Hauptmann, I must be a Russia-bot, or Putin-bot if you will because

with everybody speaking of Russia as if there was only one person in Russia, that Putin man,
I find it in myself to say ‘Hold your horses”. Our friend Gennady in Moscow and Olga in
Chelyabinsk do not count, I have made them up; everybody knows that.

I have written comments which were 1. pro Putin, 2. pro Crimea (Russian Crimea), 3. pro-
Brexit, 4. anti-Ukraine, 5. anti-EU, 6. pro-Trump, 7. anti-US

I must be a Putin-bot when the prefabricated narratives are contradicted! Good lord, what a
primitive interpretation.

How that all came about is this story: I am in South Australia, not in Petersburg or Krasnodar.
I am a retiree who is originally from West Berlin, so I read English and German, but not Russian.
My affinity to some things Russian feel like a comfortable pair of old slippers, though. When I
was young, I met a young German who had taken a shine to playing Russian folk music on
domra and balalaika (both string instruments) and I took a shine to him. With the Zhivago
movie, Russian music became acceptable, and we had a professional ensemble touring all
over the place from Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

I will never forget the elderly gentleman who told me that “it was hard in the Soviet prisoner
of war camps, but their music was so wonderful”. I will also not forget our group’s performance
on a dais in the middle of a Swiss horse racing track. Moscow Nights the boys sang and the
horses were puffing around us. We toured Britain often where I wore my Balmoral Tartan
jacket without knowing that I should not have because only the Royal Family is allowed that
Balmoral Tartan. One day I must get it to them. It’s well travelled and too good quality to go to
the dump or to someone who does not know how to behave.

It was a rich tapestry of experiences but I never learned Russian or travelled there. We had
people in the group who spoke it. It is called delegating and they delegated English to me.

A good four years after the group had expired I needed a job, ending up in a company which
exported JVC hi-fi and video gear to Moscow and her satellites from Frankfurt. I could hardly
believe it, and neither could the Russian born wife of the company’s owner. It was 1982 and
when she returned from visiting her family in the Soviet Union, she spoke of the despairing
Russian mothers having to bury welded zinc coffins coming back from Afghanistan. I knew
then that the days of the Soviet Empire would have to be numbered.
One-son families resent the consequences of wars.

We migrated to Australia and ended up in Adelaide where we found a Russian Community

Centre and rekindled our musical skills. In the meantime, the Wall in my old hometown had
crumbled. People got their land back, but I did not what my father and grandmother had
bequeathed to me.

The land (Prenzlauer Promenade 191, Berlin) got allocated by the Kohl government to a French
state owned company, no compensation, no negotiation. We were just ordinary Germans (not
salt of the earth) who had owned the place since 1928 - not deserving our constitutional right
to property. Had I had the money to go to court for breach of constitution, I would have
probably won, but in subsequent years I had to learn that even the US were involved in that
very large corruption complex.

David Brooks on PBS in 2011: “and this time we have no Mitterrand to help us”. François
Mitterrand was President in France at the time and the government owned elf Aquitaine
‘pocketed’ our asset. I tried to find out from Mr. Brooks what exactly he meant, but the letter to
the New York Times came back as ‘not at this address’. So the tag “New York Times columnist”
is a cover.

To this day (2018) the Leuna-Minol/elf Aquitaine complex (sometimes referred to as the party
donors affair), the collusion between France, Germany, and the US, have not been fully clarified,
let alone rectified. Our land was too valuable for the common folks like us. The Kohl-Regime
abused their power, and nobody held them to account.

Their collusion deleted my belief in the rule of law in the West. If that’s what the West does to
people, the West’s hegemony (or Full Spectrum Dominance in their ideology) is just as
kleptocratic as many hoodlum countries and there is no reason to have any respect for the US,
Germany, and France. Nice words, nice philosophy, but in practice??.

It is therefore desirable that the power of the West be dented. They criticise kleptocratic regimes
and do exactly the same?

So: 1. pro-Putin. Having been at the receiving end of the abuse of power by the US, Germany,
and France I became reprogrammed to sympathize with China and/or Russia and Putin, not
because of his beautiful blue eyes but because of the possibility of a counterweight. The all
powerful US manipulated the German reunification process at my expense and now I no
longer root for Goliath but for David.

What happened in Russia in the decade before Putin was quite shocking. If it had not been
Vladimir Putin who surprised us at the beginning of the new millennium it would have had to
be someone else with biceps to straighten out a few things. Things have improved in Russia
but like a woman’s work, a President’s work is never done.

Next: 2. pro-Crimea (Russian Crimea). Crimea was a peculiar construction, part of Ukraine
but with Russian naval presence in Sevastopol and a majority Russian speaking population. It
was never a happy symbiosis, so when Ukraine was supposed to become part of NATO/EU
there was a problem.

NATO was founded as an anti-Soviet military alliance but over time it became an anti-Russian
alliance, as if the old expression of the hereditary enemy was still valid, even though they now
use the word ‘adversary’.

Could Russia really have tolerated a hostile military right on their doorstep, however legal
that is? My husband was on Crimea in 2017 participating in a Russian music festival which
existed there since about 2008. It felt like being on the Riviera In the 1960s I heard, very enjoyable
and recommendable, so they reported. If another referendum were held there tomorrow,
Russia would be preferred, I am sure of that. With Sevastopol no longer available to NATO,
the interest in Ukraine has nose-dived.

The big politicians talk about giving Crimea back, as if it was an object without people that
could be shifted, hither and nither.

Of course, annexation is not at all nice. Hawaii was also annexed, and that one was against the
will of the inhabitants. These things happen even if we think they should not. The main thing
is probably that there be no loss of life and the towns remain liveable. Sevastopol was 100 %
flattened by the Germans in WWII, but is now completely rebuilt and there was no destruction
in 2014. That matters.

Ukrainians had 20 years to conquer hearts and souls. Currently the Saudis intend to annex
Yemen, and 8 million people are starving, have their dwellings destroyed by bombers from
the US with logistical assistence from the UK. How civilized, how honourable, what wonderful
Western democracy leadership!

So I cannot be anything else but pro Crimea, Russian Crimea.

Next: 3. pro-Brexit. When the UK joined the European Economic block, we were rather happy,
because it made our touring there so much easier. But 40 years on things did not look that
good any more. The countries on the continent moved to an ever closer union - Britain wanted
to be the leader. More and more time was spent on negotiations, and David Cameron refused
to accept that Europe had not elected or appointed Britain as the leader. It became clear that if
the EU wanted cohesion and consensus that would never be achieved because British leadership
aspirations were in the way.

That prompted me to post pro-Brexit, and whether or not Russia/Putin would like that or
what effect it would have on Russia - I could not have cared less. If the EU was to survive and
prosper, they needed to speak with one voice in the future, but with Britain that would never
be possible. So my pro-Brexit was in fact pro- EU - Done.

Next: 4. anti-Ukraine. Ukraine is a bit like Argentina, forever going around in circles. No
progress, ever. The demands by George Soros to pump billions and billions into Ukraine every
year were interesting because his generosity was for other people’s money, i.e. EU countries’
money. Since then Soros has sported more EU generosity ideas with respect to Africa and
something else, but I forget.. George Soros has too many ideas how other people should spend
their money. In Ukraine the clocks go in their own pace, therefore nobody wants to send money
there.

Next: 5. anti-EU These commenters have misread me. It is a strange grouping, the EU. They
haven’t integrated the newer countries and keep talking about more before consolidating what
they have already got. But then again, EU membership is more about joining NATO and buying
compatible weapons from the US. Would EU membership be possible without NATO, or NATO
membership without EU membership? I don’t know but democracy cannot be practiced when
you have to observe limitations from all manner of organisations. I would like the continental
EU to prosper but with spanner in the works UK and bottomless barrel like Ukraine that
cannot happen. It would break the bank to take in Ukraine. What kind of thinking is that?

Next: 6. pro-Trump. A disruptor was needed after Clinton, Bush II, and Obama. His focus on
American domestic policies should have taken the pressure of foreign policies, like supporting
and funding “moderate rebels” or destroying yet another country after Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
A businessman is used to cost/benefit analyses and the hope was that Trump would do some
when the military was itching to destroy yet another country. That’s hope, but there was hope
before, cruelly dashed. You can only be for the one who offers hope and change, Trump’s
adversary Hillary had no hope or change to offer.

Next: 7. anti-US After I learned in 2011 from David Brooks (said to be a New York Times
columnist) on PBS TV, that there was meddling by the US in the German reunification process
which cost us our land and my brother’s life, my old admiration for the US of A died.

Much is made that social media, trolls, or Putin bots influenced the 2016 elections. I may sound
like a Putin-bot, but it could not have been me, because I am not on facebook and twitter. But
because there are so many accusations, I needed to explain why a person unattached to any
movement could be mistaken for a Putin-bot.

I am on three minority networks which have no influence. So why do I do this? I have suffered
a great injustice and it makes me feel better to express my opinion, when logic and rationale is
on that side anyway. I am surely not unique, there must be other people on the networks who
have had similarly bad experiences with the overlord and speak out, not needing prompting
from the Kremlin & Co.

I am cheesed off with the duplicity of the West. I laugh about their ‘rules based order’ and ‘rule
of law’ which I have experienced to be not worth the paper written on. I do not need a
disinformation campaign to understand what happened to me.

I am not on facebook and twitter so the trouble does not come from me. Sowing discord,
chaos, and confusion - as if that had not been there before 2016.

You can read that Russia and the West/US need to disentangle to avoid conflict. Then someone
says one must get along and isolation is not good when at the same time sanctions are designed
to isolate Russia more and more. Confusion rules there, not with me. Cooperation with Russia,
when people who engage are vilified?

This is chaos and confusion made in the USA. They do not need my little scribes for that. Now
the latest: Defence Secretary Mattis says Putin’s Russia is undermining ‘America’s moral
authority’? How can Putin, Russia, and me undermine something that does not exist? But
Mattis has to say that to the military graduates. They must have an enemy to be motivated to
throw a b0mb somewhere on earth every 12 minutes.

So, here’s my little explanation. I could sit here for the rest of the century and write about their
monkey circus and cheating. I have reasons for what I say; other people may have other reasons
- there is no need to vilify dissenters from the West’s prefabricated narrative like they used to
do in the Soviet Union.