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#2 on the front page and no comments? Come on people, let us know what do you think. Without passing judgment, it was extremely strange to see such an out-in-the-left-field opinion piece on HN homepage.
I don't think support for Putinism and Russian militarism could be called "leftwing" using any normal definition of that word.
I don't believe either of that was in the article. Condemnation of one party does not imply support for the other.
It presents emotionally loaded imagery that is easily corroborated but has no relevance to the rest of the article. This is an attempt to look like journalism.

It then drops into a bunch of paranoid raving with nothing to back it up.

"How many people are aware that a world war has begun? At present, it is a war of propaganda, of lies and distraction, but this can change instantaneously with the first mistaken order, the first missile." So it hasn't begun? Does anyone find this platitude profound?

No idea why it's on the front page. Certainly not worthy of commentary.

> Ukraine - once part of the Soviet Union - has become a CIA theme park. Having orchestrated a coup in Kiev, Washington effectively controls a regime that is next door and hostile to Russia: a regime rotten with Nazis, literally.

This bullshit has a place on russian state television, not on HN frontpage.

Yep. Propaganda echo.

Russia has nothing to offer to Ukraine today. Literally nothing.

> russian state television

Word "state" is redundant in context of today's Russia. Only oppositional TV station is Dozhd (aka TV Rain) - and it's Internet only.

"In the last eighteen months, the greatest build-up of military forces since World War Two -- led by the United States -- is taking place along Russia's western frontier. Not since Hitler invaded the Soviet Union have foreign troops presented such a demonstrable threat to Russia."

This sentence demonstates everything that is wrong with John Pilger. His default line is that the USA is to blame for EVERYTHING. Therefore he writes the above statement, but ignores Russia's recent military excursions and buildup, and more ludicrously he ignores China's military buildup.

The man has some interesting things to say, but his hatred for the west makes him a fringe commentator who is largely ignored.