analysis

Is the Angela Carini vs Imane Khelif boxing scandal a larger Russian disinformation campaign? Did Western conservatives fall for a stress test on how effective Russian soft power can be? by MRG Staff.

Notes: (1) The Russian controlled, International Boxing Association, who may pay Carini reward money after her lost to Khelif, has largely been discredited and was banned by the International Olympics Committee. The IBA in response has banned Ukraine for example. Thus, the IBA vs the IOC is a part of the larger West vs Russia conflict, but conservatives jumping to Carini’s defense so quickly proves the effectiveness of Russian psychological operations and infiltration campaigns into Western conservative politics to the delight to the Kremlin.   

According to Greg Beacham (2024) of the Associated Press as published by PBS, stated that the Olympics has tightened rules relating to gender such as since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the World Aquatics (organization), World Athletics, and the International Cycling Union having changed rules on the matter. These new restrictions span from banning athlete’s born male who went through male puberty but transitioned to female after puberty, and to testing testosterone levels of people assigned female at birth who may have more masculine characteristics, e.g., being intersexual, not trans-sexual.

So, we are in an Olympic games where qualifying international organizations clamped down on possible trans-athletes, but…that still hasn’t prevented conservatives from threating the Paris Olympic Games as a showcasing for “the fall of Western Civilization”.

But this paper I am writing is about a theory I have.

The theory being (1) Russia worked a deal with Angela Carini – who outside of boxing is an Italian cop – to be a plant to throw the fight, to help Russia in their psychological war with the West. By Carini being beat by Khelif it would enrage many Christians, conservatives, Right Wingers, etc., and help paint the West as a decadent, immoral, ungodly, woke, etc. The Russia led International Boxing Association, i.e., the IBA, would then pay Carini outside of the Olympics for her throwing the fight and would make it seem like Russia cares about women’s rights and fairness in sports. This is the same IBA that disqualified Khelif from the 2023 IBA World Championship, or (2) Carini wasn’t actively involved but the IBA intended to use her regardless for their own propaganda campaigns.

The irony of Russia “defending femininity” is that Russia legalized domestic abuse. See article by Jenny Stallard of the British Broadcasting Corporation [Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/0dd0ab91-145a-4137-bf87-28d0498c8d56]

The only reason why I may suspect the number one theory of Carini possibly being complicit is that Carini did appear to “flop” when fighting against a Turkish female fighter Busenaz Suremeneli (the current defending IBA world champion and Gold Medalist at the Tokyo Olympics) in the 2022 IBA Women’s World Champion Boxing event. So that’s two events that Carini has been caught up in some form controversy, or suspicion by onlookers, etc.

At minute 4:09 you can see Carini slip against Busenaz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medalists_at_the_IBA_Women%27s_World_Boxing_Championships

According to Beacham (2024) of the Associated Press, “Kremlev (leader of the IBA) also said he intends to award $25,000 to Italy’s national federation and $25,000 to Carini’s coach after her dramatic opening-round exit against Khelif.  Further, Kremlev regarding Carini said, ““I couldn’t look at her tears,””.

Russia, who oversees the International Boxing Association, was disqualified from the Olympics for their invasion of Ukraine and has a gripe with the International Olympics Committee (IOC) for the banning of Russian athletes suspected of doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.

Russia has also been proven as having tried to infiltrate American conservative and right-wing politics, e.g., Trump Tower Meeting, Trump Bayrock Scandal, Tucker Carlson & Alex Jones being platformed by Russian State media, Marina Butina with the NRA, the Neo Nazi group – The Base – being in Moscow and ran by an American in exile, David Duke having an apartment in Moscow, etc.

Also, Russia has been doing ongoing irregular warfare campaigns against the United States and European NATO allied nations. By irregular warfare I am referring to online warfare such as troll and bot farms, sometimes posing as American’s and Europeans across the political spectrums to sow unrest, tension, foster culture war, etc. Yet, it is not only the Russians doing this irregular warfare but the Israelis (who have some ties to the Russian state, both politically and culturally), Iranians, Chinese, Cubans, North Koreans, etc. Russia has diplomatic ties with all these nations that are hostile to the United States, and often steps in to be a savior to these pariah regimes when the larger international community condemns their actions.  

If Imane Khelif, who beat Italian amateur boxer, Angela Carini, were to be a male, many people are assuming that all men are stronger than females. However, Imane Khelif is a woman who was assigned that birth, and this gender is on her passport, but she has more masculine features. Imane Khelif has lost to women before such has having lost to Ireland’s Kellie Harrington during the Tokyo Olympics and had been on the international circuit for some time now, even having been assigned as a UNICEF Ambassador (according to Beachman, 2024). So, in theory Angela Carini had a possibility of putting up a fight or even beating Khelif, yet, Carini called the fight herself in less than one minute. Currently, Khelif will square off next after the Carini fight against Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamouri who outright said she isn’t scared of Khelif and Khelif isn’t even considered the best in the games.

People’s instant, unresearched reactions are more about instilled implicit biases which paints women as being scared, feeble, and weak and that men have automatic advantages across the board over females, even if the females are better trained, conditioned, etc. In other words, the world is using the scandal to project their patriarchal sentiments and ambitions onto others. The out of shape, balding, middle-aged divorcee can feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that he can beat women no matter how much they accomplish, sort of thing.

 To me this means that Carini, may just be…soft. Yes, I said it. If Khelif was beat by other women, then maybe Carini wasn’t as tough for what a female Olympian is expected to be.

Yet, Carini has already been coddle by far-right, Pro-Mussolini Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who as a candidate won on the larger wave or Euroskeptic, Anti-EU, far right politicians that swept over Europe in the wake of the European Financial Crisis (onset by the poor financial management of Greece and others) and the refugee crises of the Syrian War, Libyan Civil War, Arab Spring, and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

People are using this boxing “scandal” to be political, with the critics being opportunistic and trying to weave this the woodegy-boodgedy narrative of the “ungodly, Neo-Marxist, Luciferians” who are trying to attack, flatten and distort the godly, hierarchical, traditional order best typified by Western (often synonymous with White, Patriarchal, European) Civilization. This scandal is just shy of the earlier Olympics opening ceremony scandal that featured either a depiction of the Last Supper or the Feast of Dionysius, or a combination of both, that featured gender-bending drag queens, queer people, and plus size models. That scandal had already activated the masses of Christians – many who have adopted a conspiratorial mindset in our post-COVID 19 post-lockdown world – but, now with this boxing scandal the hungry masses were already primed for more blood.

The irony of conservatives jumping on this scandal and pretending to defend Carini is that many Right Wingers, notably the men within it, don’t care about women’s sports. These are the same type of men that you can see on any WNBA post making fun of the WNBA and how it isn’t as profitable as the NBA. These are the same people within the larger contemporary conservative movement who…repealed federal abortion protection under Roe vs. Wade, are pushing the “Trad Wife” lifestyle where women don’t work or control their finances, and admire a leader such as Donald Trump who called Stormy Daniel’s “horseface” (even though he had unprotected sex with her while his wife was pregnant), was civilly charged with sexual assault, and of course was caught on camera talking about “grabbing women” by the p-ssy.

The Right-Wing men often speaking on this boxing controversy are not defending women’s rights to support women in being free or equal but are trying to get women to reject feminism and comeback to the overlordship of patriarchy which requires rigid gender conformance (largely to coddle and inflate the male’s ego and sense of self-worth). The men often commenting on behalf of Carini, first off spoke without hearing all the facts, but that is irrelevant because they already have their agenda in mind. It is fake sympathy with hidden intent. The intent being of convincing women with the tactic of “See, I told you so”, so come back to men protecting women because you (women) can’t protect yourself.

However, there are plenty of women as you can see online commenting that are embracing this patriarchal framing of the matter. These women span your run-of-the-mill, freaking out at PTA meeting, 1980’s -like Satanic Panic Karens, to this new movement of “Biblical Femininity” “Trad Wives” (women who want to live at home and not work despite technology having replaced the duties of domestic work such as microwaves, dishwashers, laundry machines, grocery deliveries, etc. – note, yes, being a stay at home mother is not just about cooking and cleaning), and, of course the Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists (TERFs). On TERFs, I find TERFs to be nonsensical because they claim to want to “destroy patriarchy” so they’re at odds with conservative men but they are in agreement with conservatives on excluding trans-people, though trans-women specifically have voluntarily given up their male privilege in order to fit into and honor femininity (some going as far as getting bottom surgery). The fact that radical feminists believe in destroying patriarchy, you would think they would ally with someone who voluntarily gives up their male privilege, but TERFs are in theory adjacent to purist supremacist forms of fascism.

But what does this boxing scandal have to do with Russia? The paranoia and backlash feeds into the larger anti-West propaganda in part from Russia to label the West as decadent, liberal, but the Russians as being strong, Orthodox, traditionally masculine, etc. Which is ironic because Putin has tried to pay people to have children. No, seriously. He had to ordain a baby-making day to encourage Russians to have babies. If Russians were as much of a caricature as Putin and Western conservatives wish the Russian people were, then they wouldn’t need any problem pushing out children in a very homophobic culture.

Further, is the fact that Angela Carini is being paid by the International Boxing Association which is now based in Russia.  According to Greg Beacham of the Associated Press, as quoted in an online article by PBS on 2 August 2024, “The IBA is controlled by Umar Kremlev, who is Russian and brought in the state-owned energy supplier Gazprom as its primary sponsor and moved much of the governing body’s operations to Russia.” The irony of the Gazprom connection is that Gazprom’s football club, FC Zenit, has been accused multiple times of racism and xenophobia, and was later banned form European competition.

It is important to know that Khelif was disqualified by the IBA in 2023 for “failing unspecified and untransparent eligibility tests for women’s competition from the now-banned International Boxing Association” (Beacham, 2024). Her 2023 disqualification came interestingly after Khelif beat Russian Azalia Amineva in 2023 according to Beacham (2024).

I can’t prove it, and it does seem conspiratorial, but it could appear that Angela was promised to have been paid by the IBA if she threw the fight with Khelif, and by her throwing the fight it would feed into the narrative that Khalif was transsexual and beating up on a “poor, innocent, beautiful” women who trained her whole life just have it taken away by the “woke, Social Justice” mob. This therefore feeds back to the Kremlin’s psychological warfare operation of trying to posit themselves as the saviors of Christendom against the “failed experiment” of liberal democracies where “women have rights”, “white populations are in decline” “LGBTQ+ aren’t forced to live in hiding and are able to get married”, etc.

The talking points regarding the west being “degenerate” are straight from Putin intellectual Aleksandr Dugin, a man who became a key foundational figure of the Western Alt-Right movement (alongside other figures such as Juilus Evola). Dugin has been associated with Right Wing conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones and Jay Dyer, but also former Fox News contributor, Tucker Carlson, and even white supremacist Lauren Southern, who was platformed by Fox’s Australia outlet, Sky News.

According to Thomas Saintourens of Le Monde (2022), Umar Kremlev has ties to Putin, in which Kremlev, a former Russian military man who is a member of the Order of St. George (Russia’s Medal of Honor) used Russian troops for ceremonies for his International Boxing Association. Further, Saintourens (2022) mentioned that Kremlex is part of the patriot biker association known as the “Night Wolves”, and in 2004 and 2006, the former amateur boxer was convicted of violence. “Under the chairmanship of Mr. Kremlev, the IBA hoists the Russian colors high up in boxing rings around the world and defies the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Mr. Putin himself has made the case a personal one in a long-distance fight against IOC president, Germany’s Thomas Bach, in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia following the disclosure of a “state-sponsored” doping program after the Sochi Olympic Games (2014). Overseeing amateur boxing, which is a popular sport on every continent, is seen as an opportunity to promote Russia’s soft power.” (Saintourens, 2022).

Sources:

Saintourens, T. Putin’s ally running world amateur boxing looks to uphold Russian soft power. (2022) Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2022/12/11/putin-s-ally-running-world-amateur-boxing-looks-to-uphold-russian-soft-power_6007349_9.html#

Beachman, G (2024). Boxer Angela Carini could receive $50,000 award from banned IBA after her loss to Imane Khelif.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/boxer-angela-carini-could-receive-50-000-award-from-banned-iba-after-her-loss-to-imane-khelif/ar-AA1oaFDz?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Beacham, G. (2024). Who is Olympian Imane Khelif? An Algerian woman boxer is facing gender backlash. Associated Press, published by PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/who-is-olympian-imane-khelif-an-algerian-woman-boxer-is-facing-anti-trans-backlash

#olympics #2024olympics #parisolympicgames

Did Orson Scott Card predict Trump and Russia? Similarities between Aleksandr Dugin’s Eurasianism ideology and Orson Scott Card’s Second Warsaw Pact in Ender’s Shadow (1999) and Shadow of the Hegemon (2000) by MRG Staff

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Before I get into Card’s works, first I want to say that despite his personal beliefs, I do feel that people can change or make mistakes. Simply because Card was scrutinized for his personal beliefs and comments (which I don’t endorse), I think we would be doing ourselves a disservice by not objectively analyzing his works to find clues about his predictions on geopolitics. Below, I will provide quotes from Ender’s Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon. It will astound you the foresight that Card had in 1997 and 2000 relating to geopolitics considering these books were published before the onset of the War on Terrorism, the spy-state, and Russia’s unveiling of their recent ambitious geopolitical moves. Card’s stories are also…pretty good as far as an exploration of the human condition, family, friendships, etc. Though science-fiction probably gets the association of being a very male space with the negative connotation of fantasizing or projecting power-fantasy, I can assure you, that’s not true, and also that Card’s series has a diverse cast, and also one of the strongest female characters in a series I’ve read in Petra Arkanian. Though, there’s always room for criticism. If you ever see the Ender’s Game film, I can assure you that the book is better and the film’s writers (not the actors) ruined the possibility of a more expanded universe which parallels certain aspects of our real-world. Hollywood politics? Further, we have to realize that science-fiction often takes real world issues and simply speculates on their outcomes, particularly involving emerging technology. We can in many ways learn from certain science-fiction works.

But, how did Orson Scott Card predict Russia’s neo-imperialist ambitions, similarly to, but alternatively to how Robert Heinlein predicted the West attempting to merge with Russia (as read in Starship Troppers with the Russo Anglo American Alliance).

I will get to the point.

A character in Ender’s Shadow, named Bean, is a boy with genetically modified intelligence and an IQ which surpasses that of the series’ hero, Ender Wiggins. A street urchin forced to eek out a meager living on the chaotic streets of a dystopian Rotterdam, Netherlands (which in real-life is the end location of the developing Belt-and-Road initiative – strange how Card predicted this)….the boy, Bean, after surviving a Lord of The Flies situation between bands of roaming and abandoned street children, is taken in by a Catholic Nun who is working for the International Fleet (think the United Nations). Her job is to find special children able to be sent to Battle School, a school which trains genius children in adult war-games in order to become future commanders of Earth’s next fight with an alien nemesis (note: you can disregard the science fiction background about aliens in my argument). Bean while at Battle School, leaning about geopolitics, and assesses the world’s political situation for the reader.

While Bean reads, on page 400, it is said, “When the Buggers (i.e., a derogatory term for the aliens that Earth is fighting) showed up, China had just emerged as the dominant world power, economically and militarily, having finally reunited itself as a democracy. The North Americans and Europeans played at being China’s “big brothers”, but the economic balance had finally shifted.” (Card, 1999). Further, on page 400, Card (1999) states, “What Bean saw as the driving force of history, however, was the resurgent Russian Empire. Where the Chinese simply took for granted that they were and should be the center of the universe, the Russians, led by a series of ambitious demagogues and authoritarian generals, felt that history had cheated them out of their rightful place, it was Russia that forced the creation of the New Warsaw Pact, bringing its effective borders back to the peak of Soviet power – and beyond, for this time Greece was its ally, and an intimated Turkey was neutralized. Europe was on the verge of being neutralized, the Russian dream of hegemony from the Pacific to the Atlantic at last within reach.”

How does this relate to Aleksandr Dugin’s Eurasianism strategy? The shortest way to describe it is that he wants to Russia to expand back to its Soviet territorial heights, but Dugin mixes a combination of esoteric thought and geopolitical maneuvering often through an ideological analysis of the “fallen” West.

From these quotes from Ender’s Shadow, it does sound very familiar to what is going on now in the real-world under Trump’s foreign policy, which on the surface feeds into a sense of right-wing isolationism, or even to liberal pacifism, or pacifism regardless of political affiliation (not all Republicans are warhawks), but in another light it seems as if Trump is purposely antagonizing the balance-of-power for reasons unknown. A very clever for “every action is an equal reaction” approach by Trump. For example, by challenging NATO members to meet their minimum contribution requirements, if they do meet these it raises his political perception among his base, but if nations refuse to, or simply can’t pay, it hurts the alliance as a whole and he’s able to placate the Kremlin.

We have to remember, that many of these NATO countries suffered through a Eurozone economic crisis while also providing military support to US coalition forces, and, took on the humanist task of permitting refugees from Middle East instability. By withdrawing from a leadership positions and shaming the credibility of US foreign policy it creates an opportunistic void in which a hungry Putin regime can fill. From Trump’s public shaming and attempted embarrassment of foreign leaders in NATO, i.e., our allies; to his sanctions on NATO-member, Turkey, which will only push the Turks closer to Russia, which was the case in the Cold War as the Turks played both sides, and this provides the Russians will Black Sea access to to the Mediterranean, and pulling troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, it seems as if Trump is going down the list of every move to tilt the balance-of-power to Russia. But why? Why would Trump create an opportunity for another superpower to make grand acquisitions on the “Grand Chessboard”?

Things teetering conspiracy comes to mind, yet, not really if we understand the complex historical events which lead to events such as World War II. It is known public record that many in the United States and British establishment helped fund our enemies in their infancy, or led policies of appeasement such as that of Neville Chamberlain regarding Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland. In theory, these moves by the US and UK elite to throw secretive financial support to people such as Hitler, or to earlier movements such as the Bolsheviks before WWI, helped to create the justification for eventual Allied intervention. By Trump pulling out of the Middle East, challenging NATO, and presenting the most favorable policy to the Israel state in modern times despite human rights concerns of the Palestinians, it seems as if Trump is a type of “Chaos Agent”, but whose allegiance once you go down this hole is hard to discern. Is he actively while passively assisting Russia on its “Third Rome” dreams by permitting the Russian Government to take the spiritual baton as champion of the Holy Land away from the “fallen West”?

Is Trump on the surface combating Chinese intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices, yet, behind the scenes supporting China by proxy of his appeasement of Russia, in which these two powers are actively engaged in the emerging “Eurasian Superhighway” of the Belt & Road Initiative? Is Trump simply laying the dynamite of the “grand showdown” between powers, which on the surface will seem ideological or a clash of civilizations, but really be a way to usher in a world of less nations, a new monetary system, and larger power-blocs that rise from the ashes of chaos like the symbolism found in the ancient Phoenix symbol? It sounds odd, but if you were tell a farmer in 1902, that the United States would be the sole Western superpower, with dollar hegemony, a permanent place in European politics, and overseeing an international body called the United Nations, that farmer would call you crazy. The truth of the matter, regardless of outcome, is that new systems come, and with the Cold War over, and the United States taking the burden as “problem child” in a world of global mitigation and anti-terror operations, we live in a time where new powers will rise, thus current political & economic realities will change.

In Shadow of the Hegemon by Card (2000) it is said, “Over a million Indians made it out of India before the Chinese sealed the borders. Out of a population of a billion and a half, that was far too few. At least ten times that million were transported over the next year, from India to the cold lands of Manchuria and the high deserts of Sinkiang” (p. 427). “As if this vast redrawing of the world’s map were no enough, Russia announced that it had joined China as its ally, and that it considered the nations of eastern Europe that were not loyal members of the New Warsaw Pact to the provinces in rebellion. Without firing a single shot, Russia was able, simply by promising not to be as dreadful as overlord as China, to rewrite the Warsaw Pact until it was more or less the constitution of an empire that included all of Europe east of Germany, Austria, and Italy in the South, and east of Sweden and Norway in the North” (p. 427-8). “The weary nations of western Europe were quick to “welcome” the “discipline” that Russia would bring to Europe, and Russia was immediately given full membership in the European Community. Because Russia now controlled the votes of more than half the members of that community, it would require constant tug of war to keep some semblance of independence, and rather than play that game, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, and Portugal left the European Community. But even they took great pains to assure the Russian bear that this was purely over economic issues and they really welcome the renewed Russian interest in the West.” (p. 428). “In the Pacific, Japan, with its dominant fleet, could afford to stand firm; the other island nations that faced China across various not-so-wide bodies of water had no such luxury” (p. 428).

My last quote from Shadow of the Hegemon by Card (2000), deals interestingly with Muslim nations and how Muslim nations might be unrealized allies to the West and USA. “Indeed, the only force that stood firm against China and Russia while facing them across heavy defended borders were the Muslim nations. Iran generously forgot how threateningly Pakistani troops had loomed along their border in the month before India’s fall, and Arabs joined with Turks in Muslim solidarity against any Russian encroachment across the Caucus or into the vast steppes of central Asia. No one seriously thought that Muslim military might could stand for long against a serious attack from China, and Russia was only scarcely less dangerous, but the Muslims laid aside their grievances, trusted in Allah, and kept their borders bristling with the warning that this nettle would be hard to grasp” (p. 428-9).

Citations

Card, O. S. (2000). Shadow of the Hegemon. New York: Tor.

Card, O. S. (1999). Enders Shadow. New York: Tor.