This Drama is Far from Over-Further Wars as the Prime Instrument of Policy
The events in Ukraine since November 2013 are so astonishing as almost to defy belief. An legitimately-elected (said by all international monitors) Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has been driven from office, forced to flee as a war criminal after more than three months of violent protest and terrorist killings by so-called opposition.
His “crime” according to protest leaders was that he rejected an EU offer of a vaguely-defined associate EU membership that offered little to Ukraine in favor of a concrete deal with Russia that gave immediate €15 billion debt relief and a huge reduction in Russian gas import prices. Washington at that point went into high gear and the result today is catastrophe. A secretive neo-nazi military organization reported linked to NATO played a decisive role in targeted sniper attacks and violence that led to the collapse of the elected government. But the West is not finished with destroying Ukraine. Now comes the IMF with severe conditionalities as prerequisite to any Western financial help.
After the famous leaked phone call of US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland with the US Ambassador in Kiev, where she discussed the details of who she wanted in a new coalition government in Kiev, and where she rejected the EU solutions with her “Fuck the EU” comment,[1] the EU went it alone. Germany’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier proposed that he and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, fly to Kiev and try to reach a resolution of the violence before escalation. Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski was asked to join. The talks in Kiev included the EU delegation, Yanukovich, the three opposition leaders and a Russian representative. The USA was not invited.[2]
The EU intervention without Washington was extraordinary and reveals the deeping division between the two in recent months. In effect it was the EU saying to the US State Department, “F*** the US,” we will end this ourselves.
After hard talks, all major parties including the majority of protesters, agreed to new presidential elections in December, return to the 2004 Constitution and release of Julia Tymoshenko from prison. The compromise appeared to end the months long chaos and give a way out for all major players.
The diplomatic compromise lasted less than twelve hours. Then all hell broke loose.
Snipers began shooting into the crowd on February 22 in Maidan or Independence Square. Panic ensued and riot police retreated in panic according to eyewitnesses. The opposition leader Vitali Klitschko withdrew from the deal, no reason given. Yanukovich fled Kiev.[3]
At the closing ceremony of the Winter Games, it struck me that Putin didn't look much like a man celebrating a triumph. Its funny even though Yunukavich was illegitimately driven from power, nobody is calling for him to return as he did piss all to forestall the crisis and then ran off to Moscow to dump the whole thing in Vladimir's lap. No wonder Putin looked underwhelmed. truly the Games were finished but really the games had only just begun
ReplyDeleteNext time Putin will send unmarked troops to Alaska and arrange a referendum for the return of Alaska to Russia.
ReplyDeleteAnd you guys will still be criticizing America's interventionsm and militarism.
Why don't you wake up for a change? And take an aggressor for what he is?
USA did send troops to other parts of the world and could sometimes be seen as an aggressor - but USA (at least in the 20-21-th centuries) never annexed territories from other countries like Putin is doing right now.
And the amounts of blatant lies and propaganda that Putin is throwing at the rest of the world is STAGGERING compared to anything the Americans ever tried in terms of justification for military action.
As no NEO-NAZIS.
The current "government of Crimea" is based on the "Russkoye Yedinstvo" party. There's one missing word in the name. The original name of the organization is "Russkoye NATSIONALNOYE Yedinstvo" - a strongly neo-nazi organization, with a swastika as the main symbol. They even dressed like Hitler's SA, the only difference being the shirt color.
Here's the ousted "people's governor of Donetsk", a guy who lead a group of pro-Russian protesters that captured the local government of Dontesk (an eastern region of Ukraine) and installed a Russian tri-color flag on top of it:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiJ5U6cCYAALK_o.png:large
The guy spent 10 years throwing "sieg heil" salutes at the RNE.