by David William Pear

David William Pear is an progressive columnist writing on economic, political and social issues. He is a regular columnist for The Real News Network, Op Ed News, and an editor for OEN. His articles have also appeared in Truth Out, Consortium News, Russia Insider, and other publications.

The main stream propaganda media has been on an anti-Putin, anti-Russian propaganda binge for years, and the Guardian is one of the leaders of the pack.One has to wonder if it has anything to do with the Guardian’s shady dealings with George Soros’ secretive Open Society Foundation. Soros makes a fortune from U.S. sponsored regime changes and financial disasters. A regime change in Russia could make him Billions of dollars.For years the Guardian was a captain of journalism in a sea of corporate monopoly media. No longer and many of its renowned journalists have abandoned ship or been thrown overboard. Their alleged crimes were mutiny against the establishment?The first storm at the Guardian came when award winning editor in chief Janine Gibson was forced to walk the plank ( May 2015 ). Gibson was widely expected to become the Guardian’s Senior Editor. Instead Gibson was deep sixed after she navigated the Guardian through the treacherous course of revealing the Edward Snowden leaks.The Guardian was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Snowden story, but the U.S. and British spy agencies were not amused. They had been caught red-handed hacking everybody’s computers, spying on US citizens and even listening in on the private phone conversations of heads of state ( here ). The polish on their crimes was lying to Congress.The U.S. spy agencies use the information it gets from spying to interfere with the politics and elections of foreign governments, allies as well as foes. The storm at the Guardian over the Snowden leak resulted in the editors of the Guardian destroying their own computers, while notorious British GCHQ spies stood by and watched ( here ).The many fans of the Guardian had been popping Champaign corks and feeling secure that the Guardian was watching over the establishment and reporting abuses of power, fraud, corruption and wrongdoing. Readers trusted the Guardian for its honest reporting for years.Unbeknownst to most readers, the Guardian was in deep financial trouble. The Scott Trust that owns the Guardian needed a white-knight. It has been hemorrhaging money for years ( here ) and there were rumors that the Guardian might have to shut down its presses ( here ).A white knight did not come forward, but a vulture capitalist did: George Soros and his Open Society Foundation. The financial arrangements and quid pro quo are unknown, since both the Scott Trust and Open Society are secretive.Coincidentally or not, at the same time the Guardian launched its anti-Putin crusade, the Guardian joined in a new partnership, called the New East Network, with murky NGO’s, shady Eastern blogs, unknown sources and an outfit called Eurasianet ( here ).The managing editor of Eurasianet is Justin Burke. At the time that the Guardian made the announcement of its new partnership, Justin Burke was and still is the chief editor. A link to Eurasianet had Burke’s email address listed at Soros’ Open Society Foundation ( June 2014 ).The Guardian and Soros-connected New East Network run anti-Putin and anti-Russia propaganda daily. There is no shortage of pro-Ukraine propaganda either. That propaganda spills over onto the Guardian website. This is a sinister conflict of interest for the Guardian. It should make a full disclosure of the financial arrangements between itself and Soros.George Soros has made his fortune on currency speculation, regime change, coups and vulture capitalism. His current venture of destruction is Ukraine. Soros financed NGO’s that fueled the US led coup against the elected government of Ukraine and installed a cabal of fascists. Soros is a major backer of anti-Putin NGO’s in Russia. Soros constantly lobbies the US and the EU to bail out Ukraine with Billions of dollars, of which he would be a big beneficiary. Soros lobbies the US and the EU to destabilize Russia, which again would benefit him in Billions of dollars ( here ).Soros has a sordid history. One of his most infamous coups was to break the Bank of England in 2002. The Telegraph called Soros “the man who broke the Bank of England; the arch villain of Black Wednesday” ( here ). Soros responded that if he did not do it somebody else would. His only morality is derived from the market.The latest brouhaha out of the Guardian is a ridiculous allegation, based on flimsy-to-no evidence, that Putin fixed the 2016 US election. The main stream media, including the Guardian, has brainwashed the impressionable public that there is some kind of scheme between Putin and Trump. It is made up guilt, by made up association: “Trump bad—Putin bad”—and vice versa. It is a cynical ploy.The logic of a Trump-Putin connection is twisted. What did Trump do, get together with Putin and say: “Volodia, if you can hack the election and help me beat Hillary I will be your best friend forever? We can go horseback riding together without a shirt?” If the US and Russia have good relations, and Trump is so inclined, then that is a plus for peace. It does not make one pro-Trump to be pro-peace. The neocons, war profiteers and warmongers want the US public to hate Putin, to lay the foundation for a regime change or war. If they can get some of the hate for Trump to rub off on Putin then it serves their evil purposes.The whole basis of the Putin-hacking story is that leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee proved that Clinton-2 nomination was rigged by the Democratic National Committee. The nomination was stolen from Bernie Sanders. It was election fraud in plain sight, but the media has faked the news, and fakes ignorance.Instead of going after the real perpetrators of the election fraud of 2016, which is the Democratic National Committee and Clinton-2, Obama and the main stream media put out smokescreens of Putin hacking the election. If anybody should be blamed for “election hacking” it is the DNC, Clinton-2, and the entire establishment including Obama.Obama is spending his last month in office poisoning the well between the U.S. and Russia. He is playing the “Russian hacking” farce for all the propaganda it is worth, and the main stream media is piling on obediently.One reason Obama is pushing the propaganda is that he is trying to salvage his legacy. He was depending on Clinton-2 to keep his legacy going. He is also settling scores of a personal vendetta against Putin—and the birther Trump. The propaganda is immature, foolish, irresponsible and dangerous.The propaganda has gotten so petty that the Guardian quotes “anonymous White House officials” as saying that as part of Obama’s new sanctions against Putin he is closing Russia’s “three-story Georgian mansion” retreat on the Chesapeake Bay.According to the propaganda repeated by the Guardian, the Russian retreat is an “old-school-KGB den of spying iniquity and espionage”. In contrast, the Guardian describes a similar retreat that the US embassy has in Russia on the Moscow River as “a place where US diplomats can let their hair down. It has a pool table, dart board and picnic area”; no mention of any old-school CIA spies or espionage going on there.The Guardian’s anti-Putin propaganda has gotten into the bizarre. The editors have lost touch with sanity. The Guardian even sees an ominous plot in a Christmas party at the Kremlin. Christmas Parties are part of the job of diplomats.The Guardian though sees a sinister threat from the Russian Christmas party because “all the children of American diplomats were invited to an event to visit the Kremlin’s festive Christmas tree”.The Guardian says that the “Russian’s code” behind the children’s Christmas Tree party is a “subtle reminder, for those who were able to decode it, that the FSB (the KGB’s successor) has precise information about the children of US embassy employees and diplomats ( here ).”