‘Family Values' Congress Brings Pro-Moscow Message To Georgia

[TomSea]

‘Family Values' Congress Brings Pro-Moscow Message To Georgia

Several thousand social-conservative activists from around the world are gathering in the Georgian capital this week in a high-profile event they say is aimed at countering the West's "fanatical liberal ideology."

The local host of the event, conservative activist and businessman Levan Vasadze, listed his "demands" in an appeal to the West at the plenary session of the World Congress of Families (WCF) on May 16:

Stop this insanity, he said to enthusiastic applause. Stop interfering in the internal affairs of this sovereign country; stop financing attacks on our church and family traditions through hundreds of your NGOs.

The main U.S. foreign-policy priority, Vasadze asserted, is "supporting homosexuality all over the world."

The World Congress of Families is a U.S.-based organization founded in the mid-1990s as an international umbrella organization of groups supporting conservative social values. Its positions include defending traditional marriage, opposing abortion, and opposing antidiscrimination measures intended to protect people of all sexual orientations.

In 2014, the Southern Poverty Law Center declared the congress and several of its constituent members in the United States to be "anti-gay hate groups."

In an interview with RFE/RL on May 17, Vasadze noted that millions of abortions are performed globally each year.

"No war, conventional or religious, has ever killed as many children as this fanatical liberal ideology under the banner of freedom and human rights," Vasadze said. "The movement against this in the West is gaining momentum, and this congress is the heart of this movement."

And this excerpt:

The 2016 congress – which opened on May 16 and runs for four days -- will present an honor to former U.S. President George W. Bush, a supporter of the organization who sent the Tbilisi congress a written message of greeting praising its "efforts to recognize the importance of families in building nations."

"Your work improves many lives and makes the world a better place," Bush wrote.

Read More At: http://www.rferl.org/content/georgia-confress-families-antigay-moscow-oligarchs-bush/27741199.html

Yes, I've felt shameful about actions by our federal government especially in the past 3 or 4 years concerning gay marriage and now this other transgender issue. I do always want to be fair.

[geronl]

Sounds like they have no idea what they are endorsing when they back Moscow

[TomSea]

Sounds like they have no idea what they are endorsing when they back Moscow

Agreed. The article even mentions the war (cerca 2009) between Russia and Georgia; so those people in Georgia have had to put up with some of that.

[jmyrlefuller]

Sounds like they have no idea what they are endorsing when they back Moscow

Just to be clear: RFE/RL is a U.S. government propaganda arm that is staunchly anti-Moscow. It dates to the Cold War era and is targeted at eastern Europe (so the Georgia here is the Republic of Georgia, not the U.S. state). So there's probably some slanting going on.

[TomSea]

Just to be clear: RFE/RL is a U.S. government propaganda arm that is staunchly anti-Moscow. It dates to the Cold War era and is targeted at eastern Europe (so the Georgia here is the Republic of Georgia, not the U.S. state). So there's probably some slanting going on.

Shortwave radio was great stuff to listen to growing up;

Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, the BBC and in those days, very good, Family Radio, Radio Taipei, Radio Nippon.... Armed Forces Radio Network.

And Radio Moscow and Radio Havana, we have full fledged Russian propaganda coming at us as well and some people read RT, Russia Today.  So, there is a balance.

Radio Netherlands, etc.

But I'd doubt if one could find errors in the article posted, some of what they report is from the AP or other newsoutlets.

Thank goodness for Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty.

[TomSea]

Russian Legal Information Agency:

Russian Internet watchdog blocks access to site on Crimea run by RFE-RL

MOSCOW, May 12 (RAPSI) – Access to Internet site Krym.Realii, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty project, has been blocked in Russia, Natalya Poklonskaya, the Crimean Prosecutor, told RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20160512/276088882.html