US/NATO War on Russia

[Tracy Riddle]

John Kerry said with a straight face, "It's really 19th century behavior in the 21st century," Kerry said. "You just don't invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests."

Yes, we Americans have extremely short memories. And our officials are bald-faced hypocrites and liars. Sorry, world.

[Peter Lemkin]

John Kerry said with a straight face, "It's really 19th century behavior in the 21st century," Kerry said. "You just don't invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests."

Well, at least it was good for a laugh...only one I had today!::

[Lauren Johnson]

from Pat Lang:

There is a lot of nonsense being expressed on the Sunday news shows today. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the HPSCI said on FNS that 1- military intervention by the US was out of the question, and 2- it is unfortunate that the Ukrainians do not have tactical nuclear weapons. On the Fariid Zakariyah extravaganza Zbig and Madeleine Albright ventilated their passions. Zbig hates Russians (he is a Polosh gentleman of the old school) and Madeleine is still trapped in the memory of WW2. The desire to believe that the Nazis have returned was clear. The mere fact that the Ukrainian right wing nationalists who overthrew the government are more like Nazis than anyone else on the scene was ignored. Zakariya himself was so worked up that he looked as though he might have a stroke. Too much Oxbridge and Ivy is a heavy burden for anyone to bear. The only sane voice was that of Stephen Cohen. He was a lecturer that I heard at both the staff college and the war college. He looks to be in amazingly good shape for his age. He said that Putin was nothing like a Nazi. He said that Putin is trying to restore Russia's dignity in the world and that he had been severely provoked by the overthrow of Yanuchenko's government after an agreement had been reached under EU sponsorship for a transition. Cohen is obviously of Jewish heritage and he said that Putin has been the Russian ruler most favorable to the Jews in the history of the country.

In any event, one sole fact must be remembered by all the arm waving foreign policy enthusiasts. Russia possesses the ability to destroy the United States as we have the ability to destroy Russia. There can be no combat between us and them. None! The risk of escalation is just too great. pl

[Paul Rigby]

Moscow Inverses Roles in Kiev by Thierry Meyssan

http://www.voltairenet.org/article182415.html

While NATO leaders are jubilant over the Kiev coup, which they present to public opinion as a revolution, the situation is reversed in the field. Instead of government of thugs raising the stakes between Washington and Moscow, it is now up to U.S. agents to exercise power and manage the problems they have organized. Moreover the country is ruined and nobody whomsoever will succeed in bringing about a quick recovery. Russia can now defend its interests without incurring the liabilities from twenty years of earlier corruption.

Russia did not respond to the Ukrainian events during the Olympic Games in Sochi. [1] Its press continued to make headlines of the exploits of its athletes while there was fighting in Kiev and in several provincial capitals. The Kremlin considered in effect that at any time, the enemies of Russia could still turn its sports festival into a bloodbath.

As expected, power had changed hands in Kiev at the closing of the Games. Westerners, largely misinformed, had the impression of a pro-European revolution. However, disclosure of a telephone conversation between the assistant U.S. Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, and her ambassador, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, left no doubt about the US plot. [2] Using false images, a government of thugs and crooks [3] was transformed into a band of Russophile torturers. [4] As in all the "color revolutions", mysterious snipers on the rooftops fired upon both the crowd and the police, and the government was held responsible. In the confusion, the West had the impression that "the people" had seized the national palace. In reality, while mostly Nazi activists fought in Maidan Place live on international television, politicians discreetly seized the national palace in another part of the city. From this point of view, Europeans can rest assured that it is not the Nazis who took power.

Ukrainian Nazis have nothing to do with the Western European extreme right-wing, usually openly Zionist (except the French National Front). During the Cold War, they were incorporated into the NATO stay-behind networks operationalized to sabotage the Soviet economy and were maintained by Poland [5] and Lithuania. During the three months of demonstrations, they were joined by Tatar Islamists who came especially from Syria where they practiced jihad. [6] Tatars, historical inhabitants of the Crimea, who were dispersed by Stalin for having supported the Nazis during World War II, are now spread mainly in Ukraine and Turkey. In Maidan square, they were able to show their know-how acquired in Syria : they blinded and mutilated police. [7]

The revolution in Maidan square masks an extremely classic coup. [8] In the presence of US "diplomats", the Rada has violated the constitution which it repealed without a referendum. It dismissed the President without debate or trial and bestowed legislative and executive powers upon Oleksandr Turchinov, the former head of the secret services.

The new dictator appointed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister, which corresponds, miraculously, to the wishes expressed in advance by Victoria Nuland. The new Prime Minister appointed a new cabinet which he presented to the protesters in Maidan Square. These protesters, and many more of which the Nazis now represent no more than a third, booed many of them, because they were Jews.

In the Crimea, where the majority of the population is Russian and where the Russian Navy is based, the Regional Parliament also took on a "revolutionary fervor", overthrowing the local government (loyal to Kiev) and appointed its own (pro-Russian). Simultaneously, military personnel in uniform, but without a flag or insignia, took over the government buildings and the airport, preventing the new government in Kiev from sending its forces.

In Kiev, the Rada denounced Russian interference and called for respect for the Budapest Memorandum. In 1994, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia signed an agreement on freezing Ukraine in exchange for its giving up nuclear weapons. [9] But for Moscow, the Memorandum no longer applies because it has been violated by Washington and London since the "Orange Revolution" of 2004 [10] and even more since the coup last week.

What's going to happen now? On May 25th, Brussels will organize elections to the European Parliament, Kiev will organize a presidential election, while the Crimea will hold a referendum on self-determination. Once independent, Crimea can always choose to link to Russia to which it belonged until 1954. The European Union, in turn, must fulfill the hopes it aroused and therefore pay, with who knows what money, part of the $ 35 billion Ukrainian debt. The Nazis of Maidan Square will not return to the underground, but claim their share of government.

But the story will not be over as long as there remain problems for the Kremlin in the eastern part of Ukraine (which houses a Russian population and defense industry) and Transnistria (the former Bessarabia, which was once the research center for Soviet missiles). This small country, of Russian population, which does not appear on any map because it does not hold a seat at the UN, took its independence upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but is considered part of Moldova. It resisted valiantly in a war that it fought with Moldova, Romanian aviation advisors and NATO in 1992. [11] It has since managed to keep the Soviet social model while adopting democratic institutions. Safety is ensured by a Russian "peacekeeping force". [12] At minimum, twenty square kilometers of Ukraine could rise and join Transnistria to offer it an exit to the Black Sea, but the Ukraine would then be cut off from its western appendix. At best, connecting Crimea to Transnistria would suppose taking hundreds of kilometers of coastline including the city of Odessa.

Disorders will therefore continue in Ukraine, but it will be for the hosers hosed - the United States and the European Union - to bear the weight. Besides the financial burden, how will they manage their victorious Nazi and jihadists allies? Washington's show of force is turning into a fiasco. [13]

Thierry Meyssan
Translation
Roger Lagassé

[1] "After Yugoslavia, Ukraine? ", By Thierry Meyssan , Voltaire Network, February 5, 2014.

[2] "What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland?", Oriental Review, Voltaire Network, 7 February 2014.

[3] "Ukraine is selling off its energy sector to the West ", by Ivan Lizan , Translation Louis -Benoît Registry Однако , Voltaire Network , 2 March 2013.

[4] "Fake pictures in Ukraine" , Voltaire Network , 6 February 2014.

[5] "Poland as the Slavic Turkey' of NATO Destabilization", by Andrew Korybko, Oriental Review, Voltaire Network, 22 February 2014.

[6] "Jihadists in charge of crowd control in Kiev protests", Translation Alizée Ville, Voltaire Network, 5 December 2013.

[7] "Евротвари выкололи глаз и отрубили руку пленному бойцу" , YouTube, February 21, 2014.

[8] "Coup pro-US in Ukraine" , Voltaire Network , 23 February 2014.

[9] "Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine 's accession to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons" , Voltaire Network, 5 December 1994.

[10] "Washington and Moscow do battle in Ukraine" by Emilia Nazarenko and writing , "Ukraine: The Street Against the People" , Voltaire Network, 1 and 29 November 2004.

[11] "In 1992 , the United States tried to crush militarily Transnistria" , by Thierry Meyssan , Voltaire Network, 17 July 2007.

[12] "Tiraspol forward base of the Russian army ?" Arthur Lepic , Voltaire Network, 15 August 2007.

[13] "Can Washington overthrow three governments at the same time?", by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Al-Watan (Syria), Voltaire Network, 23 February 2014.

[Lauren Johnson]

From The Sakar

Obama and Kerry: frankly, I did not expect much, by I still was baffled by how out of touch the White House is with the real world. To deter Putin from using armed force, the White House decided to threaten him boycott the next G8 summit in Russia. Boo hoo!! I am sure that Putin is now terrified. Not. Listening to the Idiot in Chief and his Secretary of State I truly marveled that this still threw the full political weight and credibility of the USA behind a government which even Iatseniuk himself called a "kamikaze government'. Anybody with an IQ at or above room temperature understands that this so called "Ukrainian government" is bound to fail if only because it literally has no money to do *anything*. And yet, the boneheads in Washington are totally backing this quasi-dead regime.

The Ukrainian military: I am sure that you have heard that the Ukrainian military is now on maximal alert and is read to repel any Russian aggression. Guys, this is laughable. There IS NO UKRAINIAN MILITARY. There is a lot of old hardware lying around, there are a number of units with basically zero training and there are a few units of higher combat readiness. Do you know what that list is called in military terms? It's called *TARGETS*. I also suspect that if the western politicians and a few Ukie crackpots speak about the Ukrainian armed forces, the officers there, and even the soldiers, fully realize that they are just targets. Hence the wise decision of the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the Hetman Sahaidachny frigate, to quickly switch sides even before getting back home (it is in eastern the Mediterranean according to the latest reports). I suppose you all know that the notion of the Ukies developing their own nuclear weapons is laughable, so I will not bother dwelling on it now.

Yulia and Klichko: As I suspected from her appearance on the Maidan, Yulia clearly lost it and her latest statement about the crisis just proves to me that she is "gone fishing". In contrast, however, and to be great surprise, it was Klichko who came out with the sanest proposal: he wants to create a special commission in Kiev tasked with negotiating a peaceful resolution of the current crisis between Kiev and Moscow. Unlike Yulia's hysterical nonsense, Kichko's statement contained no grandstanding or lyrical appeals. It was all business-like and pragmatic. Well, who knows, maybe the man can get something done since I am quite sure that as long as the Ukies do not use force in the east or south the Russians will stay on high alert, but on their side of the border.

That's it for this short update. Later today I hope to have the time to post a somewhat more analytical look at the recent developments.

Cheers,

The Saker

[Magda Hassan]

Well what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Five top military, security commanders take oath to Crimea

Published time: March 02, 2014 21:57
Edited time: March 03, 2014 00:21 Get short URL



The head of the Security Service of Crimea Petyor Zima

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Army, Law, Maria Finoshina, Military, Police, Ukraine

A number of high ranking Ukrainian military and security officials in Crimea have sworn their allegiance to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as Simferopol pushes for its autonomy from the self-imposed government in Kiev.
The head of the Security Service of Crimea Petyor Zima, Chief of Department of Internal Affairs in the Crimea Sergey Abisov, the head of Service for Emergency Situations Sergei Shakhov and acting Chief of the Border Guards of Crimea Victor Melnichenko all took an oath of allegiance to the people of Crimea.
Earlier rear admiral Denis Berezovsky swore allegiance to the people of Crimea taking control over Crimea's newly formed Navy.
The ceremony took place in the Council of Ministers chamber in the presence of regional government officials, mayors of different cities and regions.
Those who took the oath promised "to respect and strictly observe the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea" and to "promote the preservation of interethnic accord and civil peace" on the peninsula.
"I believe that this day will go down in history of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as the day that all law enforcement agencies were established in the autonomy," The region's Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov announced. "We will prove that the Crimeans are capable of protecting themselves and ensure the safety and freedom of our citizens."
Aksyonov also added that other authority figures are willing to swear allegiance to the people of the Crimea in the near future. "Up to now, 90 per cent of all law enforcement agencies in the territory of the autonomy are subordinated to the Supreme Council of Crimea. And this work will be completed by us tonight," Aksyonov told the regional parliament.
Aksyonov also said that a new Defense Ministry will soon be created for the autonomous Crimea
"In the near future, as part of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a new ministry the Ministry of Defence will be created. I am sure that such a ministry will be vital for us, based on the principle of If you want peace - prepare for war.'"
The Prime Minister of Crimea also noted that self-defense squads are guarding the Crimean prosecutor's office, where a new acting prosecutor will be presented for the regional parliament for approval on Monday. The issue with the Court of Appeal will also be discussed on Monday.

Chief of the Border Guards of Crimea Victor Melnichenko

"Today the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is formed as an independent, integral public authority," said Aksyonov. "I am sure that all of us will prove that we did not just come into power and that we can give Crimeans what they expect from us"
The prime minister admitted that a number of outstanding issues must be dealt with in the Crimea and the development of a common strategy is to take place at the next Council of Ministers of Crimea meeting scheduled for March 4.
In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta Aksyonov promised to create a stable state in Crimea by May.
"We will never see Maidan' with their black smoke and burned tires here," the Crimean leader said. "I responsibly promise that Crimea by May will be calm, quiet, friendly. People of all nationalities will live here happily."
Facts you need to know about Crimea and why it is in turmoil
Crimeans began protesting after the new self-imposed government in Kiev introduced a law abolishing the use of other languages for official documents in Ukraine. More than half the Crimean population are Russian and use only this language for their communication. The residents have announced they are going to hold a referendum on March 30 to determine the fate of the Ukrainian autonomous region.
Feeling a threat from the new central government of questionable legitimacy, a number of regions stood up against it. Thousands of people across eastern and southern Ukraine are flooding the streets of major cities, urging local authorities to disobey Kiev's orders. The local population is calling the government in Kiev illegitimate and demanding that their local governments refuse to take orders from it.

http://rt.com/news/military-commanders-s...rimea-497/

[Albert Doyle]

If Russia has no right to occupy eastern Ukraine then by the same logic Britain would have no right to raise its flag over Northeastern Ireland, right?



Russia is retaining its Guantanamo in the Crimea. If they don't torture anybody they will be ahead of the US as far as human rights in their Guantanamo.



.

[Paul Rigby]

Ukraine: Secretive Neo-Nazi Military Organization Involved in Euromaidan Snyper Shootings

By F. William Engdahl
Global Research, March 03, 2014

http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-sec...gs/5371611

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 (photo, left) 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]

The question unanswered until now is who deployed the snipers? According to veteran US intelligence sources, the snipers came from an ultra-right-wing military organization known as Ukrainian National Assembly Ukrainian People's Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO).

Strange Ukraine Nationalists'

The leader of UNA-UNSO, Andriy Shkil, ten years ago became an adviser to Julia Tymoshenko. UNA-UNSO, during the US-instigated 2003-2004 "Orange Revolution", backed pro-NATO candidate Viktor Yushchenko against his pro-Russian opponent, Yanukovich. UNA-UNSO members provided security for the supporters of Yushchenko and Julia Tymoshenko on Independence Square in Kiev in 2003-4.[4]

UNA-UNSO is also reported to have close ties to the German National Democratic Party (NDP). [5]

Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the crack-para-military UNA-UNSO members have been behind every revolt against Russian influence. The one connecting thread in their violent campaigns is always anti-Russia. The organization, according to veteran US intelligence sources, is part of a secret NATO "GLADIO" organization, and not a Ukraine nationalist group as portrayed in western media. [6]

According to these sources, UNA-UNSO have been involved (confirmed officially) in the Lithuanian events in the Winter of 1991, the Soviet Coup d'etat in Summer 1991, the war for the Pridnister Republic 1992, the anti-Moscow Abkhazia War 1993, the Chechen War, the US-organized Kosovo Campaign Against the Serbs, and the August 8 2008 war in Georgia. According to these reports, UNA-UNSO para-military have been involved in every NATO dirty war in the post-cold war period, always fighting on behalf of NATO. "These people are the dangerous mercenaries used all over the world to fight NATO's dirty war, and to frame Russia because this group pretends to be Russian special forces. THESE ARE THE BAD GUYS, forget about the window dressing nationalists, these are the men behind the sniper rifles," these sources insist. [7]

If true that UNA-UNSO is not "Ukrainian" opposition, but rather a highly secret NATO force using Ukraine as base, it would suggest that the EU peace compromise with the moderates was likely sabotaged by the one major player excluded from the Kiev 21 February diplomatic talksVictoria Nuland's State Department.[8] Both Nuland and right-wing Republican US Senator John McCain have had contact with the leader of the Ukrainian opposition Svoboda Party, whose leader is openly anti-semitic and defends the deeds of a World War II Ukrainian SS-Galicia Division head.[9] The party was registered in 1995, initially calling itself the "Social National Party of Ukraine" and using a swastika style logo. Svoboda is the electoral front for neo-nazi organizations in Ukraine such as UNA-UNSO.[10]

One further indication that Nuland's hand is shaping latest Ukraine events is the fact that the new Ukrainian Parliament is expected to nominate Nuland's choice, Arseny Yatsenyuk, from Tymoshenko's party, to be interim head of the new Cabinet.

Whatever the final truth, clear is that Washington has prepared a new economic rape of Ukraine using its control over the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

IMF plunder of Ukraine Crown Jewels

Now that the "opposition" has driven a duly-elected president into exile somewhere unknown, and dissolved the national riot police, Berkut, Washington has demanded that Ukraine submit to onerous IMF conditionalities.

In negotiations last October, the IMF demanded that Ukraine double prices for gas and electricity to industry and homes, that they lift a ban on private sale of Ukraine's rich agriculture lands, make a major overhaul of their economic holdings, devalue the currency, slash state funds for school children and the elderly to "balance the budget." In return Ukraine would get a paltry $4 billion.

Before the ouster of the Moscow-leaning Yanukovich government last week, Moscow was prepared to buy some $15 billion of Ukraine debt and to slash its gas prices by fully one-third. Now, understandably, Russia is unlikely to give that support. The economic cooperation between Ukraine and Moscow was something Washington was determined to sabotage at all costs.

This drama is far from over. The stakes involve the very future of Russia, the EU-Russian relations, and the global power of Washington, or at least that faction in Washington that sees further wars as the prime instrument of policy.

Writer F. William Engdahl is a geopolitical analyst and the author of "Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order".

Notes

[1] F. William Engdahl, US-Außenministerium in flagranti über Regimewechsel in der Ukraine ertappt, Kopp Online.de, February 8, 2014, accessed in http://info.kopp-verlag.de/hintergruende...tappt.html

[2] Bertrand Benoit, Laurence Norman and Stephen Fidler , European Ministers Brokered Ukraine Political Compromise: German, French, Polish Foreign Ministers Flew to Kiev, The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2014, accessed in http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10...03542.html

[3] Jessica Best, Ukraine protests Snipers firing live rounds at demonstrators as fresh violence erupts despite truce, The Mirror UK, February 20, 2014, accessed in http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/...ve-3164828

[4] Aleksandar Vasovic , Far right group flexes during Ukraine revolution, Associated Press, January 3, 2005, Accessed in http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.c...=ukraine03

[5] Wikipedia, Ukrainian National Assembly Ukrainian National Self Defence, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, accessed in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_N...lf_Defence

[6] Source report, Who Has Ukraine Weapons, February 27, 2014, private to author.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Max Blumenthal, Is the US backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine?, AlterNet February 25, 2014, accessed in

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/25/is_the_u...e_partner/

[9] Channel 4 News, Far right group at heart of Ukraine protests meet US senator, 16 December 2013, accessed in

http://www.channel4.com/news/ukraine-mcc...c-protests

[Danny Jarman]

Thanks, Paul.

The current acting defence minister is a well known Neo Nazi. Russia has just seen a coup by a well resourced gladio cell on its doorstep and is taking appropriate action.

I'm no fan of Putin but Russia's reaction in this situation, to me at least, is logical.

The nonsense about Russia pushing passed Crimea to Poland is absolutely laughable. It's the corporate media in overdrive mode again. You know, when Berlin was unified, Russia was promised that Nato would not expand any further. Look what happened.

[Lauren Johnson]