Ola Tunander

UKRAINE/RUSSIA: Talking about an "unprovoked Russian attack" is pure propaganda. The Minsk agreement with Ukraine in 2014 was supposed to ensure Ukraine's neutrality and integrity and give the Russian-speakers in Ukraine the right to practice their mother tongue. But in 2021/22, Kyiv and Washington canceled the agreement at the same time as the US built up militarily in Ukraine. Today, journalists and other commentators do not understand why Russia cannot afford to lose the war. How is it possible that the entire Norwegian, and much of the Anglo-American, media world could be bewitched by such propaganda?

NATO ENLARGEMENT: The exclusion of Russia was a serious violation of international law. President Bush's promises to Gorbachev were nothing but deception – he appeared as a two-faced Janus, working closely with Gorbachev on a tactical level, while actually forcing the Soviet Union to retreat on a strategic level. We in the West claim that Russia must follow international law, but we ourselves can break it when it suits us.

NORD STREAM: Does NRK allow itself to be led into propaganda? In the Shadow War about the blowing up of the Nord Stream, key information about the strong presence of Western ships is omitted, in order to direct suspicion towards two Russian ships.

LIBYA: The book Strictly confidential refers to a gloomy experience for Norwegian diplomacy in Libya. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to go to war against the country – against Defense Secretary Robert Gates' wishes. Clinton must have played a brutal double game against the Norwegians. The threat against the people of Benghazi was pure propaganda.

PUBLIC: What we could previously describe as realpolitik possible is today not even possible to write about. Propaganda dominates the Norwegian public perhaps more than in any other country. The Norwegian authorities have been fooled around. The speech space has frozen.

WEAPON SUPPORT: If the West gives more weapons to Ukraine, it only means that Russia's will continue to escalate the war. The consequence of the arms support is clear: It will not lead to Ukrainian victory, but to the destruction of Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of young Russians and Ukrainians killed.

SCENARIO: MODERN TIMES here tries out an imaginary scenario to compare two irreconcilable conflicts. It is up to the reader to make up their own mind as to what this might mean.

SABOTAGE: Earlier this summer, the US Navy participated in an exercise with underwater vessels in the area off Bornholm – where the explosions of Nord Stream 1 and 2 took place in September. What were they doing there? For Russia, the purpose of the gas pipelines was to intertwine Russia with Europe. Could the USA's motivation have been to break up this cooperation and start an economic war against Europe – as, for example, Germany has now become dependent on their LNG gas?

HISTORY: Russia and Germany (as Europe's engine) should, like the coal and steel union, be developed into a joint peace project which in the future should make war between Russia and the European powers in the west impossible. The US clearly did not want this.