Why I wrote "Grand Deception"
The book is perhaps even more relevant 5 years after it was published (and banned).
Quite a few people have asked me why I wrote “Grand Deception,” my twice banned book about Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act and the historical relations between Russia and the West. Several of them suggested that I should write down what I had told them, since it seemed relevant given the risk of military threats we were facing and which are more acute than ever today. So here goes…
Writing a book is not easy. Even if you think you know exactly what you want to say, you can’t just rant off whatever’s on your mind. You have to think through the book’s structure, formulate an outline and decide where each part of the story fits so that you may produce a coherent and readable whole, which is a laborious and often frustrating process.
So why go through all the trouble? There’s some background to my urge to write “Grand Deception”. As a young man I’ve lived through the breakout of war in the former Yugoslavia and I served in the Croatian army during the war. The remarkable thing about the escalation of that conflict was that only days before its full outbreak, most people believed that war would never happen. It seemed unthinkable. I certainly did not think it would happen.
War changes everything
Yugoslavia’s ethnicities, cultures and religions were intertwined in many ways over generations. While haters did exist, most people by far did not want to hate their neighbours, did not want a war and positively wanted to preserve peace. However, once the shooting, the victims and the destruction started to happen, everything changed. Our societies rapidly polarized: nuanced, emphatic regard for the other side quickly went out the window, pacifism became unpatriotic, and political opposition became tantamount to treason. People on all sides closed ranks behind their leaders, even if they otherwise hated them, patriotism and readiness to fight became supreme virtues and the collective psyche rapidly morphed into the black and white, “us against them” mode. The business of war then became the nation’s primary preoccupation.
Having lived through this made it hard for me to be relaxed about Bill Browder’s relentless, unhinged demonization of Russia and its leadership. The effectiveness of his anti-Russian campaigning indicated that there’s a powerful network backing him, and that their agenda far eclipsed Browder’s supposed fight for justice for his lawyer accountant Sergei Magnitsky (see Tom Luongo‘s scoops corroborating this). Browder’s campaign has in fact served an unrelenting escalation of the west’s hostile posturing toward Russia, which was much worse than what we’ve seen during last century’s Cold War against the Soviet Union.
It is not too late
At present, we can still talk about Russia and Vladimir Putin in somewhat nuanced terms, exchange opposing opinions and disagree. A hot war with Russia is still unthinkable to most people. For me however, it is not difficult to imagine that one provocation, one false-flag incident credibly attributed to Russia could dramatically change all that. Our societies might suddenly polarize and the collective psyche could morph into the black-and-white, us against them mode… Nobody should think this impossible: two world wars had already broken out on the European continent and we ought to take the lessons of the past seriously lest we complacently sleepwalk into the third one.
This, in brief is why I wrote “Grand Deception.” My intent was to unmask Bill Browder’s narrative, which is being used to bolster the rationale for the west’s hostile posturing toward Russia. I also wanted to counter the ceaseless demonization of Russia and of Vladimir Putin. Deception and demonization serve to bring about public consent for, or at least a passive acquiescence to war.
The danger in demonizing Vladimir Putin
The demonization of the person of Vladimir Putin might be particularly dangerous as it predisposes the public, especially those who deem themselves fair minded and progressive, to accept war perhaps to help the Russian people free themselves from the tyranny and attain greater democracy and prosperity. While a war for resources or hegemony is always unacceptable to the public, a war for the reasons of human rights is a different thing altogether. I have met depressingly many otherwise well-meaning and learned intellectuals strain to justify even clearly illegal wars, so long as they are perceived to be motivated by human rights considerations.
Thus, starting a war always involves casting the target nation’s leader in the role of the villain with no redeeming qualities. Examples include Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Moammar Gaddafi (Libya) and Bashar Al Assad (Syria). As the media do their part, it becomes very difficult to find any positive – or even somewhat balanced – coverage of the designated villain.
Vladimir Putin has been cast in the role of villain almost from the very beginning of his Presidency. Unflattering, negative coverage is being produced almost without interruption, and ceaseless repetition of allegations is used where real evidence is should be presented. A good example is the way Bill Browder “proved” Putin’s corruption. His proof is laughable but this hasn’t kept numerous media personalities from treating him as an authority and repeating his allegations as unquestionable facts. As suspicious as such blatant bias should be, the strategy has been effective. Today most westerners seem ready to believe that Putin is a tyrant, that he routinely has critics and political rivals assassinated, that he amassed a vast personal fortune and that he runs Russia as his own personal fiefdom.
As the demonization campaign escalated to hysteria in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukraine coup, I decided to do some independent research and try to discern the other side of Vladimir Putin: who he is as a person. Did he deserve all the slander he receives daily from the western press? Do his actions show him to be a vicious tyrant? Or are we being lied to? For the reasons I’ve just detailed, I’ve devoted an important part of the “Grand Deception” to this question (I’ve published that chapter on my blog, The Naked Hedgie. They are here : part 1, part 2, part 3).
Fast forward to 2022
I’d written the above text in a blog article in September 2018. Banned and cancelled, Grand Deception might have been forgotten since then. Unfortunately, some of the book’s prediction have come true in 2022 and the danger of a hot war between Russia and the west is now greater than ever.
Making sure that such a war never comes to pass should be the top priority for any thinking person. If we sleepwalk into the third great war on European continent, most of our endeavors in life, our dreams and hopes might not matter much. The way to resist the march to war is, first and foremost, to seek the truth and to speak it freely and courageously. We should call out the warmongers among our leaders and call them out on the lies they use to contrive consent for war. Wars are always started with lies.
Grand Deception is still available on the pages of Red Pill Press, the only publisher brave enough to reprint the book. You can find it at the following links:
USA/Canada: https://www.redpillpress.com/shop/grand-deception-bill-browder-magnitsky-act-russian-sanctions/
I’m also happy to offer a PDF copy for free to anyone who requests a copy. The offer still stands, but in the last few days there’s been literally hundreds of such requests so I must ask for your patience and, if I fail to respond, please don’t be shy to remind me.
Alex Krainer – @NakedHedgie is the creator of I-System Trend Following and publisher of daily TrendCompass reports, covering over 200 key financial and commodity markets – probably the best trend following daily newsletter on the market today. One month’s test drive is always free of charge – no strings attached!
Your book about Browder is really excellent Alex and should be read by everybody who wants to understand just what the US and 'the collective West' have perpetrated against Russia since the early 1990's and how Browder (now the darling of the UK intelligence community) continues to play his part in the disgusting deception.. But of course Browder is just one of the deceptive creeps helping to lie about just about everything. The role played by anglo-american banking cabal and the IMF, World Bank, USAID etc etc needs to be fully understood. Clearly, however, the countries (which just happen to contain the majority of human beings) outside of the collective West realize this only too well and that the world has been pushed to an inflection point and this time they are absolutely are not going to comply. Hence the ghouls, divided amongst themselves and only united by their relentless selfish greed for power, consider themselves facing an existential threat. They are. And they will not triumph...
I am glad I found you, Alex. I cannot stand the lies. They surround me in my daily life as well as on the global scale thanks to my government and their over-lords. I am in Britain and have ordered your book but there is a delay as it needs to be re printed! Such is the demand. I do hope you can send me a PDF* but only when you have time. I am probably on your list. Congratulations on the response you have generated to your interviews and writing.
* alisonfletch@hotmail.com