I started to support the USSR in all sports but especially in gymnastics, athletics, football, ice-skating and ice-hockey. Throughout the 1980’s, I followed Soviet sports-stars like Nikolai Andrianov, Yelena Davydova, Svetlana Boginskaya, Vladislav Tretiak, Valeriy Kharlamov, Irina Rodnina, Yuriy Seydik, Natalia Lisovskaya, Olga Bryzgina and Vasiliy Alekseyev with passion.
These events inspired a life-long love for the Soviet Union and Russia and, as a boy, I was always delighted to read that USSR had more nuclear weapons, more tanks, and more soldiers than NATO. I also used to enjoy watching the Victory Day parade from Moscow’s Red Square on the BBC, and I was a huge fan of Leonid Brezhnev.
Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991 (due to 45 years of economic and political interference from the US, UK and other members of the Common Market), I became a fierce opponent of western intervention in other nations, and I began to detest NATO. This hatred was fueled by being Irish by birthright; I’ve always abhorred the UK and British imperialism.
My sadness at the collapse of the Soviet Union was made worse by having to watch Boris Yeltsin make a drunken fool of himself on the BBC news. Throughout the Yeltsin years, my interest in Russia waned. However, the rise of Russia under Vladimir Putin saw my love of Russia return with a vengeance. It also coincided with my divorce in November 1999. From 1999 to present, all of my girlfriends and partners have been born in the USSR. This was due to the appalling behavior of my English ex-partner regarding our son. I’ve always known Russian girls have superior family values.
My love of the USSR and Russia has been greatest for the last 7 years (after meeting a girl from the Donbass; Russian mother; Ukrainian father; in 2010). Although this relationship ended in 2012, it has given me a special love and respect for the people in this region. I’ve spent a considerable time within the historical borders of “Novorossiya” (as far west as Zaporizhia), and I find these people the warmest I’ve ever met anywhere on earth. They remind me of the country-folk I met in Ireland as a child. Like anyone who loves Russia, I was dismayed and angered by the violent riots and shootings that took place in Ukraine in February 2014 (‘Euromaidan’) and which culminated in the ousting of the democratically-elected President, Viktor Yanukovych.
Like many people on Facebook, this was when I joined several pro-Russian groups (including “INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS OF RUSSIA,” which had 40,000 members). I also set up my own group “Friends and Lovers of Russia” (which reached 205,000 members). Sadly, BOTH groups were hacked and neutralized in February 2017 (I believe with approval and assistance from Facebook employees). Euromaidan has seen a sea change in Ukraine’s sociopolitical system — including shifts towards the EU, USA and even fascism. The US (of course) is now calling the shots in Kiev (and has been since Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, were heard discussing their plans to mold Ukraine according to US interests in 2014).
Thankfully, there were — simultaneously — numerous pro-Russian demonstrations in Eastern and Southern Ukraine and, shortly afterward, Vladimir Putin intervened in the Crimea and sent a Russian military intervention to protect the majority Russian population there. A referendum took place in which over 90% of Crimean residents voted to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia. In the Donbass, the Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts also held referenda and voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and become independent states. Unfortunately, without the protection of the Russian Armed forces, these regions have been targeted for retribution by the Ukrainian Army, and tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been indiscriminately killed. Since the US-EU funded Euromaidan in February 2014, I have been politically active in social media supporting Russia, Vladimir Putin, Crimean reunification with Russia and the Donbass (Novorossiya). I have also been a vocal opponent of the US, UK, EU and NATO (and their roles in provoking war in Ukraine and elsewhere). In addition, I have changed my lifestyle to support Russia and the Donbass financially whenever possible.
I buy all of my gifts and luxury items from Russia, I support Russian charities, I financially support Russian media and I financially help selected people who have been injured by the bombs of the Ukrainian Army. Realistically, all of my disposable income goes to Russia, and this equates to several thousand pounds a year. Also, I have refused to travel to the UK and the EU since February 2014. I intend to continue this pro-Russian (anti-western) lifestyle for life (or until the EU removes sanctions against Russia and adopts a MUCH friendlier approach towards Moscow). Moreover, I have changed my Last Will and Testament to leave my home, all of its contents and all of my savings (currently £218,000) to a Russian Charity.
A big fan of Russia, quite obviously, Doyle’s recollection above betrays my “common thread” assertions even still. Russian expats, spouses of Russians, history buffs fascinated with the world’s biggest country or dedicated Russophiles the organic and the inorganic Kremlin trolls share an appalling root motivation for their outcries — the indiscriminate killing in the Donbass and elsewhere over “old world” imperialism. Doyle, just like me or any other American “convert,” just went all-in over the injustice. For my part, I have insulated a bit from Facebook or Twitter retribution by my “first adopter” and status in the tech community from days gone by. As for Doyle and others like him, getting banned from any social network is a simple matter of the network acting on a single complaint. While I may be banned tomorrow, the ramifications for any network are different depending on many factors. Whatever the reasons or strategies employed by social media, Doyle and many others have suffered a lot of friction over the years. While it’s fair to say these Kremlin agents did their fair share of administering some pain on NATO and globalists trolls too, I’ve yet to see a Russophobe or State Department hack banned from a social network. Bombastic as Chris Doyle might be, the fake news and propaganda he fights against are far more onerous in the end. I like the man, just to be totally honest, and I know he’s been called “traitor” and a lot worse, just like the rest of us. If this new brand of warfare we are witnessing is ever made into an epic poem, it’s for certain many of the people I mention herein will be named. At the extreme, battlefield casualties like Russia One cameraman Anatoly Klyan, who was shot in the stomach as the bus he was riding in came under fire by Ukrainian forces, or reporter Igor Kornelyuk and his cameraman Anton Voloshin, who had mortar fire called down upon them by the Ukrops,[30] create the real martyrs of freedom of speech and the press.
What we are witnessing is a totally new kind of geo-political crisis or war. The new west-east crisis my Kremlin Troll friends are taking part in is an asymmetrical war with a never before seen harmonized social, media, and even military component. What I mean by this is, embedded journalists are now joined by ordinary citizens both on the battlefield and off, all relaying information outward from points of the crisis. The speed of communication is what differentiates this new world crisis from the past Cold War, for instance. Perhaps the most important facet of this new communications warfare paradigm is the way the public can become inextricably tied to the war correspondent or even the combatants themselves. A fine example of this is how another unsung Kremlin hero named James Beagan, who goes by the handle C.I.D.P. Astronaut (@The_Jag_10). When Donbass militia leader Motorola and Givi were cut down by assassins in Donetsk, James’ connectivity to the war and its heroes showed the strange connectivity I mention here. From battles and exploits on the battlefield, to the geopolitical gameplay in the world parliaments the pro-Russia band never had to really “troll” at all. Just waking up provided all needed impetus for fighting the flawed narrative. Right here is the appropriate time to introduce you to a truth seeker, a comrade who’s never failed the message.
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In the war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts the term