Ukrainian Riots Accelerating

[Magda Hassan]

Interfax-Ukraine
February 12, 2014
Ukraine informally functioning as federation Russian diplomat

Ukraine is informally developing as a federation, as alternative government bodies have been set up in a number of regions, in the view of Andrei Vorobyov, minister-counselor of the Russian Embassy to Kyiv.
"I am sure that, regardless of political wishes, the country is developing toward federalization. Whether it will be formally stipulated by the constitution or whether it will formally remain to be a unitary state, but informally it is already a federation," Vorobyov said at debates the Federalization of Ukraine: From Split to Unity' in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The talk about Ukraine's federalization has been continuing for a long time, but the country has been living as a federation in the past three months, Vorobyov said. "Speaking to [Kharkiv regional administration head] Mykhailo Dobkin recently, I heard from him a phrase that, in my view, is quite truthful: Ukraine has been living as a federation in the past three months. And this actually looks true, because alternative government bodies have been set up on a part of the country's territory," he said.
Vorobyov pointed out that the priority now is to resolve the crisis in a peaceful way, and Russia is interested in a peaceful settlement through negotiations.

[Magda Hassan]

Just thought I'd mention that the US ambassador to the Ukraine is not just any old influential donor to the political party but is married to the co-author, Robert Kagan, of Project for a New American Century infamy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kagan

U.S. Points to Russia as Diplomats' Private Call Is Posted on Web

By PETER BAKERFEB. 6, 2014


Launch media viewer

Viktor F. Yanukovych, president of Ukraine, and Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, met in Kiev on Thursday. Pool photo by Mykhailo Markiv



WASHINGTON After months of taking grief for snooping on foreign leaders, the Obama administration found itself on the other side on Thursday after a private telephone call between two American diplomats appeared on the Internet in a breach that the White House tied to Russia.
In the recording, an assistant secretary of state and the ambassador to Ukraine are heard talking about the political crisis in Kiev, their views of how it might be resolved, their assessments of the various opposition leaders and their frustrations with their European counterparts. At one point, the assistant secretary uses an expletive in a reference to the European Union.

The conversation opened a window into the American handling of the crisis and could easily inflame passions in Kiev, Brussels and Moscow, where the role of the United States has been controversial. The White House on Thursday suggested that Russia, which has jockeyed with the United States and Europe for influence in Ukraine, played some role in the interception or dissemination of the conversation.
"The video was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government," Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters. "I think it says something about Russia's role."
Asked if he was accusing Russia of recording the conversation, Mr. Carney said: "I'm not. I'm just noting that they tweeted it out."
In a later briefing, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said she had no information about who posted the recording but criticized Moscow for promoting it. "Certainly we think this is a new low in Russian tradecraft," she said.
Another administration official privately confirmed the authenticity of the tape, which was posted anonymously on YouTube on Tuesday under a Russian headline, "Puppets of Maidan," referring to the square occupied by protesters, and reported on Thursday by the Kyiv Post.
A recording posted on Tuesday of a conversation between Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the ambassador to Ukraine. Ms. Nuland uses an expletive to describe the European Union. Re Post

A link to the secret recording was sent out in a Twitter message earlier Thursday by the account of Dmitry Loskutov, an aide to Russia's deputy prime minister. "Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU," the message said, clearly trying to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe.
Obama administration officials took that as confirmation of their suspicion that the conversation was intercepted or at least disseminated by Russia's government, which has sheltered Edward J. Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who exposed American eavesdropping of foreign leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany.
While the revelation prompted the White House to cancel surveillance of friendly foreign leaders like Ms. Merkel, administration officials defended themselves by noting that many governments spy on American officials as well. American diplomats have long assumed that their telephone calls were tapped by Moscow, but rarely if ever have the Russians made recordings public.
The administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the fact that this one was made public was a sign of desperation by the Russians, who in this view are trying to stop the Americans from brokering a settlement of the standoff between President Viktor F. Yanukovych and the Ukrainian opposition. It came to light even as Ms. Nuland was in Kiev on Thursday talking with both Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders.
Mr. Loskutov, responding to messages from a reporter on Twitter, rejected the American assertion that he was first to disseminate the recording. "Disseminating started earlier," he wrote in English, adding that his Twitter post was being "used to hang the blame" on Russia. Asked if Russia had any role, he said: "How would I know? I was just monitoring the Internets' while my boss was off to a meeting with the Chinese leader."
In the recorded call, Ms. Nuland and the ambassador, Geoffrey Pyatt, were talking about an offer made on Jan. 25 by Mr. Yanukovych to bring two opposition leaders, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko, into the government as prime minister and deputy prime minister, respectively. The two Americans described Mr. Yatsenyuk, a former economics minister, in favorable terms, but viewed Mr. Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion now serving in Parliament, more warily.
"The Klitschko piece is obviously the complicated electron here," Mr. Pyatt said.
Ms. Nuland suggested that Mr. Klitschko should not go into the government. "I don't think it's necessary," she said. "I don't think it's a good idea."
Mr. Pyatt concurred. "In terms of him not going into the government, just let him sort of stay out and do his political homework and stuff," the ambassador said. "I'm just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead; we want to keep the moderate democrats together."

Ms. Nuland described Mr. Yatsenyuk as "the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience," and said Mr. Klitschko's working for him was "just not going to work." Mr. Pyatt called Mr. Klitschko the "top dog" among the opposition leaders and suggested that Ms. Nuland call him directly.
Ms. Nuland seemed frustrated that European leaders had not put enough pressure on Mr. Yanukovych to respond to protesters upset with his decision not to sign a trade agreement with the European Union. She told Mr. Pyatt that Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, was preparing to send an envoy to Ukraine, which would "help glue this thing and to have the U.N. glue it."
"And you know," she said, and then used an expletive to say what could be done to "the E.U."
"Exactly," Mr. Pyatt said. He expressed concern that "the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it," and agreed that there would be value in an "international personality" traveling to Kiev to "midwife this thing."
Ms. Nuland said that she could get Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to call Mr. Yanukovych for "an atta boy" encouraging moves to work with the opposition, and that "Biden's willing."
Ultimately, Mr. Yatsenyuk and Mr. Klitschko declined to join the government later on Jan. 25. Mr. Biden called Mr. Yanukovych three days later, the day Prime Minister Mykola Azarov stepped down. Protests continue.
Ms. Nuland was in Kiev on Thursday trying to broker a deal to de-escalate the confrontation by assuring amnesty for protesters, moving demonstrations back from public buildings and restarting negotiations. Over a longer term, the Obama administration is trying to persuade Mr. Yanukovych to make constitutional and electoral changes that would allow for opposition participation in government and eventually lead to economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Ms. Nuland met with opposition leaders on Thursday and spent four hours with Mr. Yanukovych, who later released a statement saying that he was ready to return to negotiations with the opposition and would accelerate the release of jailed protesters. "It is only through dialogue and compromise that we can overcome the political crisis," Mr. Yanukovych said.
After the intercepted telephone conversation became widely reported on Thursday, Ms. Nuland spoke with European Union officials to smooth over any ruffled feathers. Reached by telephone in Kiev, Ms. Nuland referred questions to the State Department, but seemed more amused than angry. "It's all part of the job," she said. Mr. Pyatt posted a picture on Twitter of the two of them laughing as they read the Russian official's tweet on an iPad. "Enjoying Dima's tweet here in Kyiv," Mr. Pyatt wrote, referring to Mr. Loskutov.
Correction: February 6, 2014
An earlier version of this article misidentified the Ukrainian opposition leader whom Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt called a "top dog." He is Vitali Klitschko, not Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/...n-web.html

[David Guyatt]

Just thought I'd mention that the US ambassador to the Ukraine is not just any old influential donor to the political party but is married to the co-author, Robert Kagan, of Project for a New American Century infamy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kagan

::doh:: Uh oh!

[Magda Hassan]

Just thought I'd mention that the US ambassador to the Ukraine is not just any old influential donor to the political party but is married to the co-author, Robert Kagan, of Project for a New American Century infamy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kagan

::doh:: Uh oh!

Apologies, Frau Numan is not the ambassor but State Dept advisor for Europe and Eurasian affairs. She was talking to the ambassador in the tape.

Some more on Frau Numan. Ex US representative to NATO, principal National Security advisor to Dick Cheney, US embassy in Moscow, Deputy Secretary of State under Clinton, former Chief of Staff for Strobe Talbot CFR member and head of Brookings Inst. She is also a former member of faculty of the national War College as is her sister in law Kimberly Kagan, is a well-known military historian and founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War. Kinberley formerly worked as advisor to Gen Stanley McCrystal. Nice family....family get togethers must be fun.

While trying to find more information on her I see that Stephen Lendman has already travelled there. I love it when I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Washington's Dirty Game
By Stephen Lendman
Washington can't hide its dark side. It's too ugly to conceal. Its been exposed numerous times.
Here we go again. Assistant Secretary of State for European and European Affairs Victoria Nuland was caught red-handed. More on this below.
She's hardcore neocon. She's a career foreign service officer. She's worked with Democrat and Republican administrations.
Early in her career, she covered Russian internal politics at Washington's Moscow embassy.
She served on the Soviet Desk in Washington. She worked in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. She served in Guangzhou, China.
She was Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. She directed a task force on Russia, its neighbors and an expanding NATO.
She was Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott's chief of staff. She was Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO.

She was Dick Cheney's Principal Deputy National Security Advisor. She was Permanent US Representative to NATO.
She was a National War College faculty member. She was Obama's Special Envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
On September 18, 2013, she was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for European and European Affairs.
Her husband is Project for the New American Century (PNAC) co-founder Robert Kagan. He's a neocon foreign policy theorist/hardliner.
He advised John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. He served on Hillary Clinton's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) is PNAC's current incarnation. He's a board of directors member. He represents the worst of America's dark side. So does Nuland.
She supports regime change. She backs neo-fascist governance replacing Ukrainian democracy.
She's involved in manipulating street thug violence. She's part of a US-instigated insurrection.
She wants legitimate Ukrainian governance toppled. She wants pro-Western stooge governance replacing it. She lied saying: "We stand with the people of Ukraine..."
She demands Ukrainian President Viktor Yanokovych engage "with Europe and the IMF."
She was caught red-handed urging regime change on tape. Her conversation with US Ukraine ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt was recorded.
It's circulating on You Tube. It's more evidence of America's dark side. It bears repeating. It's too ugly to hide.
The leaked video is damning. It's four minutes long. It's titled "Maidan puppets." It refers to Kiev's Independence Square.
The Kiev Post (KP) broke the story. On February 6, it headlined " 'F..k the EU,' frustrated Nuland says to Pyatt, in alleged leaked phone call."
On February 4, the Nuland/Pyatt conversation was posted on You Tube. It's unclear by whom.
Both US officials expressed frustration over EU "inaction and indecision," said KP. Nuland was heard saying "f..k the EU."
Pyatt called opposition figure Vitali Klitschko the "top dog." He heads the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform party (UDAR). Pyatt and Nuland agreed he's "too inexperienced to hold a top government post."
A US Kiev embassy spokeswoman had no comment. State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki downplayed what happened.
"I'm not going to confirm or outline details," she said. "I understand there are a lot of reports out there and there's a recording out there, but I'm not going to confirm private diplomatic conversations."
When pressed about the You Tube's authenticity, she said she "didn't say it was inauthentic. I think we can leave it at that."
She was pressed again about the conversation revealing US intentions opposite of public comments about Ukrainians deciding their own future.
She lied saying they aren't "inconsistent in the least bit." Her convoluted explanation doesn't wash.
She claimed Washington is working with Ukraine's government, opposition elements, as well as "business and civil society leaders to support their efforts..."
Obama wants regime change. He wants Ukraine's democratically elected government toppled. Not according to Psaki.
She lied claiming it's "up to the Ukrainian people themselves to decide their future. (It's) up to them to determine their path forward, and that's a consistent message that we're conveying publicly and privately."
Psaki was hard-pressed explaining why Nuland felt the need to apologize. Doing so shows You Tube dialogue was authentic.
White House and State Department officials barely stopped short of accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording Nuland's conversation.
Psaki called the incident a "new low in Russian tradecraft in terms of publicizing and posting this."
"I don't have any other independent details about the origin of the You Tube video," she added.
Snowden exposed NSA's systematic global spying. Foreign leaders are targeted. Their phone calls are monitored. Their emails are read. Psaki left that issue unaddressed.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said "since the video was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government, I think it says something about Russia's role."
He wouldn't comment on what Nuland and Pyatt said.
Hours before the You Tube surfaced, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin's aide, Dmitry Loskutov, was among the first to tweet information about it, saying:
"Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU."
According to the Kiev Post, "(t)he leaked phone call appears to have been made following (Ukrainian) President Viktor Yanukovych's Jan. 25 offer to opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk to be prime minister and Klitschko to be deputy prime minister..."
In 2005 and 2006, Yatseniuk was Ukraine's economy minister. In 2007, he was foreign minister.
In 2007 and 2008, he chaired Ukraine's parliament (the Verkhovna Rada). It's a unicameral body.
The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" is Ukraine's second largest party. Yatsenyuk heads its parliamentary faction.
He and Klitschko refused Yanukovych's offer to join his government. On January 28, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigned. Yanukovych accepted his resignation. He signed a decree. He dismissed other cabinet officials.
He promised more concessions. He appointed a committee to propose constitutional revisions.
It didn't help. At the time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned street violence by "fascistic youths."
He warned against external interference. Russia "stands for a political settlement within the framework of Ukrainian law," he said.
Washington's dirty hands bear full responsibility for street violence. Regime change politics is longstanding US policy. It involves every dirty trick imaginable.
Syria is in the eye of the storm. So is Ukraine. Conditions remain volatile. Nuland/Pyatt intentions reveal what Ukrainians have to fear.
In December 1994, Washington, Russia, Britain and Northern Ireland welcomed Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, saying:
They "reaffirm(ed) their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE (Helsinki) Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine."
They "reaffirm(ed) their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine...in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."
They "reaffirm(ed) their commitment…to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty..."
Washington is duplicitous. It can't be trusted. It's word isn't its bond. It's history is treacherous.
It systematically ignores international law. It violates treaty obligations repeatedly. It wants all independent governments toppled. It goes all out to remove them.
It targets Ukraine for regime change. Nuland told Pyatt a UN official she spoke to said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to send someone to Ukraine to "help glue this thing and have the UN glue it."
She was told Ban will appoint former Dutch Ukrainian ambassador, Robert Serry, as his representative.
"That would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN glue it," said Nuland. At that point, she said "And you know, f..k the EU."
"Exactly," Pyatt replied. "And I think we got to do something to make it stick together because you can be sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to torpedo it."
"Let me work on Klitschko," he added. "I think we should get a Western personality to come out here and midwife this thing."
Klitschko "is obviously the complicated electron here," said Pyatt.
"And you've seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage (among opposition leaders) right now."
"So we're trying to get a read really fast on where he is with this stuff."
"But I think your argument to him, which I think you'll need to make...is exactly the one you made to Yats (Yatseniuk), and I'm glad you kind of put him on the spot in where he fits in in this scenario."
Nuland favors Yatseniuk for a leadership role. He's "the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience," she said.
"What he needs is Klitsch (Klitschko) and (Svoboda party fascist leader) Tiahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know."
"I think Klitsch going in, he's going to be at that level, working for Yatseniuk. It's just not going to work," she added.
"Yeah, I think that's right," said Pyatt. He urged Nuland to reach out directly to him and "help with the personality management among the three," he added.
The conversation ended with Nuland saying she can get Vice President Joe Biden to call Yanukovych "for an attaboy and to get the deeds to stick."
In December, Nuland spent days in Ukraine. She met publicly with opposition leaders. She joined their street protests. She handed out cookies.
Imagine if Russian, Chinese or other foreign officials acted the same way in Washington. Imagine the public rage. Imagine the threatening response.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels. They'll discuss imposing sanctions on Ukraine. Washington threatens its own.
On Thursday evening, Nuland met with opposition leaders Yatseniuk, Klitschko and Tiahnybok. They plotted strategy.
Hours earlier the European Parliament approved an anti-Ukrainian resolution. It called for imposing sanctions. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responded saying:
"We're disappointed at prejudice with which the European Parliament assessed the Ukrainian government's actions and at the fact that it ignored the vast majority of constructive efforts made by the Ukrainian leadership in relation to the implementation of plans for building trust and engaging into a peaceful and inclusive dialogue with both the opposition and the civilian population."
"An unbalanced nature of the resolution and calls for introducing EU restrictions don't contribute to nationwide reconciliation and trust in Ukraine and undermine the process of settling the conflict."
Washington manipulated Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. Yanukovych's earlier government was ousted.
In 2010, he was reelected president. He's targeted again. Orange Revolution 2.0 continues. At stake is Ukrainian sovereign independence.
What's ongoing involves weakening and isolating Russia. Washington's dirty game is transparent. Imperial ruthlessness is longstanding US policy.
All independent states are targeted. So are major rivals. America wants unchallenged global dominance. It wants world resources plundered for profit.
It wants ordinary people made serfs. It wants them impoverished. It wants vassal states beholden to US interests. It wants them trapped in debt bondage.
It wants ruthless control replacing democracy. It wants subservient stooges replacing legitimately elected officials.
Empire building is dirty. Tactics include bullying, intimidation, sanctions, assassinations, coups and lawless aggression.
Ukraine's future is at stake. Whether Yanukovych can save its democracy remains to be seen. The fate of 46 million Ukrainians hangs in the balance.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com.au/2014/02...-game.html

[Magda Hassan]

Oh, this will be fun. Into all the raging fascists and anti-Semites this is now thrown. Predicted outcome will be.....
Gladio in action.

Israeli ex-officer leads Ukraine protests: Reports
Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:11PM GMT

21

Ukrainian media have reported that a former Israeli army officer is playing a leading role in the anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic.

According to reports, the unnamed Israeli commands a group of 20 Ukrainian militants.
Four other Israelis, who had previously served in the army, were recently reported to have taken part in opposition rallies in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.
They were born in Ukraine but migrated to Israel and joined its armed forces before returning to the European country for the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media said that an Israeli tycoon provides financial support to the opposition in Ukraine, adding that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency is one of the instigators of the unrest in the country.
Ukraine has been rocked by anti-government protests since President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union on November 29, 2013, in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Russia has repeatedly accused the West of meddling in the internal affairs of Ukraine and fueling the crisis in the country.
In early February, a four-minute video was posted on YouTube by an anonymous user, in which US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt discussed which of Ukraine's opposition leaders they would like to see in government.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/16/...ne-unrest/

[David Guyatt]

After Yugoslavia, Ukraine ?

by Thierry Meyssan

Public opinion in Western Europe is wrong to regard the Ukrainian crisis as a showdown between Westerners and Russians. In reality, Washington's goal is not to push the country into the arms of the European Union, but to deprive Russia of its historical partners. To do this, the United States is prepared to ignite a new civil war on the continent.

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | DAMASCUS | 14 FEBRUARY 2014 FRANÇAIS ESPAÑOL DEUTSCH ITALIANO ARMENIAN ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΆ TÜRKÇE

Senator John McCain, who monitored the «Orange Revolution» of 2004 and supports jihadism in Syria, addresses protesters on Maidan Square, 15 December 2013 . Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok can be seen on his right.After having dismembered Yugoslavia during a ten-year civil war (1990-1999), has the United States decided to destroy Ukraine in a similar way? This is what could be inferred from the maneuvers that the opposition is poised to launch during the Sochi Olympic Games.Ukraine has been historically divided between, in the West, a population turned towards the European Union and, in the East, a population oriented towards Russia, plus a small Muslim minority in Crimea. After the countrys independence, the government gradually crumbled. Taking advantage of the confusion, the United States organized the «Orange Revolution» (2004) [1], which brought to power a mafia clan, equally pro-Atlanticist. Moscow responded by lifting its subsidies on gas prices, but the Orange government could not rely on its Western allies to help pay the market price. Ultimately, it lost the 2010 presidential election in favor of Viktor Yanukovych, a corrupt politician, and an on again/off again pro-Russian.On 21 November 2013, the government renounces signing the Association Agreement negotiated with the European Union. The opposition responds with protests in Kiev and in the western part of the country, which quickly take on an insurrectionary appearance. It calls for early presidential and parliamentary elections and refuses to form a government when approached by President Yanukovych and the Prime Minister resigns. The events are baptized Euromaidan, then Eurorevolution, by Radio Free Europe (run by the State Department).The crowd control for the opposition is provided by Azatlyk, a group of young Crimean Tatars who returned from Jihad in Syria especially for the occasion [2].The Atlanticist media champion the cause of the «democratic opposition» and condemn Russian influence. High-profile Western figures turn up to manifest their support to the protesters, including Victoria Nuland (Assistant Secretary of State and former Ambassador to NATO) and John McCain (Chairman of the Republican branch of the NED). For its part, the Russian press condemns protesters who have taken to the streets to overthrow democratically elected institutions.Torch-lit march of 15,000 Nazis in Kiev on 1 January 2014.At first, the movement seemed to be an attempt to orchestrate a second «Orange Revolution.» But on 1 January 2014 the power in the street changes hands. The Nazi «Freedom» party organizes a 15 000-strong torch-lit march in memory of Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), the nationalist leader who allied himself with the Nazis against the Soviets. Since this event, the capital has been covered with anti-Semitic graffiti and people are attacked on the street for being Jewish.The pro-European opposition is made up of three political parties: The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (Batkivshchyna), led by the oligarch and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (serving a prison sentence following her convictions for embezzlement) and currently headed by lawyer and former Parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk. It stands for private property and the Western liberal model. It garnered 25.57% of the vote in the 2012 parliamentary elections. The Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (Udar), of former boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko. It claims to identify with Christian Democracy and picked up 13.98% in the 2012 elections. The All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" (Freedom), led by the surgeon Oleh Tyahnybok. This political group sprang from the National Socialist Party of Ukraine. It promotes the denaturalization of Jewish Ukrainians. It won 10.45% of the vote in the 2012 parliamentary elections.These parliamentary parties have the support of: The Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, a Nazi splinter group from the former NATO stay-behind networks in the Eastern Bloc [3]. A Zionist, he calls for the denaturalization and deportation of Ukrainian Jews to Israel. He received 1.11% of the vote in 2012. The Ukrainian Self-Defense, a nationalist splinter group that sent its members to fight the Russians in Chechnya and Ossetia during the Georgian conflict. It got 0.08% of the vote in 2012.In addition, the opposition has received the endorsement of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in revolt against the Moscow Patriarchate. Ever since the Nazi Party took over the streets, the demonstrators - many of them wearing helmets and dressed in paramilitary uniforms - have erected barricades and stormed government buildings. Certain elements of the police force have also displayed great brutality, going so far as to torture detainees. A dozen protesters were killed and nearly 2,000 were wounded. The unrest spread to the western provinces of the country.According to our information, the Ukrainian opposition seeks to import military materials acquired on parallel markets. It is obviously not possible to purchase weapons in Western Europe and bring them in without NATO's green light.Washington's strategy in Ukraine would appear to be a combination of proven "color revolution" recipes with others recently concocted during the "Arab Spring" [4]. Moreover, the United States makes no effort to hide it, having dispatched two officials, Victoria Nuland (deputy to John Kerry) and John McCain (who is not only a Republican senator, but also the chairman of IRI, the Republican branch of the NED [5]) to support the protesters. Unlike Libya and Syria, Washington does not have jihadists on hand to sow chaos (except for Tatar extremists, but they are only located in Crimea). It was therefore decided to lean on the Nazis with whom the State Department worked against the Soviets and has organized in political parties since Ukraine's independence.The inexperienced reader may be taken aback by this alliance between the Obama administration and the Nazis. However, it must be remembered that Ukrainian Nazis were publicly honored at the White House by President Reagan, including Yaroslav Stetsko, Ukrainian Prime Minister under the Third Reich, who became the head of the anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and a member of the World anti-Communist League [6]. One of his deputies, Lev Dobriansky, became U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, while his daughter Paula Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Democracy (sic) during the George W. Bush administration. It is the same Ms. Dobriansky who for ten years sponsored a historical research with the aim of clouding the fact that the Holodomor, the famine that hit Ukraine in 1932-33, also devastated Russia and Kazakhstan, thereby reinforcing the myth that Stalin was determined to eliminate the Ukrainian people [7].In fact, Washington, who had supported the German Nazi party until 1939 and continued to do business with Nazi Germany until the end of 1941, never had a moral problem with Nazism, not more than it has today in providing military support to jihadism in Syria.Western European elites, who use Nazism as a pretext to harass firebrands - as seen with the "quenelle" controversy over French comedien Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala [8] - seem to have forgotten what it really is. In 2005, they closed their eyes to the rehabilitation of Nazism by the President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, as if it were something trivial [9]. On the simple strength of statements in favor of the European Union, and wrapped up in their blissful Atlanticism, they are now in cahoots their worst enemy.Civil war could well start in the Ukraine during the Olympic Games in Sochi.

From VoltaireNet.org

[Peter Lemkin]

Truce crumbles amid gunfire in Ukraine, protesters claim 100 dead; as many as 15 police killed; thousands injured.....many seriously!

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/20...m-kiev.php
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 20, 2014 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN UKRAINE
THE KILLINGS, LIVE FROM KIEV [UPDATED WITH VIDEOS AND PHOTOS]

RFE/RL is hosting a live blog reporting the latest government killings in Kiev. The news overnight includes "sniper attacks" by government forces on protesters, as reported by the Telegraph.
A reader writes from Ukraine, citing a Facebook post by a doctor who is coordinating medical care at the protest center in Kiev. According to the doctor's page she is the founder of the Kiev Institute of Dermatology and Cosmetics. Her post (in Ukrainian) from around 5:00 a.m. US Eastern time indicates that in the previous hour 13 were killed by snipers. The doctor's Facebook page is here.
UPDATED by JOHN: This video is chilling, too; the scenes from Kiev are nightmarish, all the more so since it is sometimes hard to tell exactly what is going on:

In this video, you actually see protesters being shot by police:

The bodies of some of those killed are laid out in the street:

Many of the wounded are being taken to St. Michael's church, where medical personnel are treating them. I believe this is because if they go to hospitals, they will be identified by the regime. The makeshift hospital is weirdly beautiful:

News reports indicate that the regime is considering shutting down the internet, television and cell phones to try to prevent images like these from circulating around the world.

[Peter Lemkin]

A New Cold War? Ukraine Violence Escalates, Leaked Tape Suggests U.S. Was Plotting Coup

A short-lived truce has broken down in Ukraine as street battles have erupted between anti-government protesters and police. Last night the country's embattled president and the opposition leaders demanding his resignation called for a truce and negotiations to try to resolve Ukraine's political crisis. But hours later, armed protesters attempted to retake Independence Square, sparking another day of deadly violence. At least 50 people have died since Tuesday in the bloodiest period of Ukraine's 22-year post-Soviet history. While President Obama has vowed to "continue to engage all sides," a recently leaked audio recording between two top U.S. officials reveal the Obama administration has been secretly plotting with the opposition. We speak to Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University. His most recent book, "Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War," is out in paperback. His latest Nation article is "Distorting Russia: How the American Media Misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine."

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: A short-lived truce has broken down in Ukraine as street battles have erupted between anti-government protesters and police. Last night, the country's embattled president and the opposition leaders demanding his resignation called for a truce and negotiations to try to resolve Ukraine's political crisis. But the truce only lasted a few hours. The last three days have been the bloodiest period of Ukraine's 22-year post-Soviet history. Over 50 people have died, including at least 21 today. The truce ended today when armed protesters attempted to retake Independence Square. Both sides have accused the other of using live ammunition. A Ukrainian paramedic described the chaotic scene.

UKRAINIAN PARAMEDIC: [translated] Some bodies are at the concert hall. Some are at the barricades. Now there are maybe around 15 or 20 dead. It is hard to count, as some are carried away, others are resuscitated. Now, as far as I know, three dead people are at the city hall, and two more dead are at the main post office. There are so many at the concert hall that we didn't even take them.

AMY GOODMAN: The Ukrainian parliament, Rada, and Cabinet buildings have reportedly been evacuated because of fears they could be stormed by protesters. The street clashes are occurring while the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, is meeting with the foreign ministers from Germany, Poland and France.
The Obama administration stepped up pressure on the Ukrainian government Wednesday by announcing a visa ban on 20 members of the Ukrainian government. The U.S. is also threatening to place sanctions on the Ukrainian government.
The protests began in late November after President Yanukovych reversed his decision to sign a long-awaited trade deal with the European Union, or EU, to forge stronger ties with Russia instead.
To talk more about the latest in Ukraine, we're joined by Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton University. His most recent book, Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, is now out in paperback. His latest piece in The Nation is called "Distorting Russia: How the American Media Misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine."
So, talk about the latest, Professor Cohen.
STEPHEN COHEN: Where do you want me to begin? I mean, we are watching history being made, but history of the worst kind. That's what I'm telling my grandchildren: Watch this. What's happening there, let's take the big picture, then we can go to the small picture. The big picture is, people are dying in the streets every day. The number 50 is certainly too few. They're still finding bodies. Ukraine is splitting apart down the middle, because Ukraine is not one country, contrary to what the American media, which speaks about the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Historically, ethnically, religiously, culturally, politically, economically, it's two countries. One half wants to stay close to Russia; the other wants to go West. We now have reliable reports that the anti-government forces in the streetsand there are some very nasty people among themare seizing weapons in western Ukrainian military bases. So we have clearly the possibility of a civil war.
And the longer-term outcome may beand I want to emphasize this, because nobody in the United States seems to want to pay attention to itthe outcome may be the construction, the emergence of a new Cold War divide between West and East, not this time, as it was for our generation, in faraway Berlin, but right on the borders of Russia, right through the heart of Slavic civilization. And if that happens, if that's the new Cold War divide, it's permanent instability and permanent potential for real war for decades to come. That's what's at stake.
One last point, also something that nobody in this country wants to talk about: The Western authorities, who bear some responsibility for what's happened, and who therefore also have blood on their hands, are taking no responsibility. They're uttering utterly banal statements, which, because of their vacuous nature, are encouraging and rationalizing the people in Ukraine who are throwing Molotov cocktails, now have weapons, are shooting at police. We wouldn't permit that in any Western capital, no matter how righteous the cause, but it's being condoned by the European Union and Washington as events unfold.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when you say the Western countries who bear some responsibility, in what sense do they bear responsibility? I mean, clearly, there's been an effort by the United States and Europe ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union to pull the former Soviet states into their economic sphere, but is that what you're talking about?
STEPHEN COHEN: I mean that. I mean that Moscowlook at it through Moscow's eyes. Since the Clinton administration in the 1990s, the U.S.-led West has been on a steady march toward post-Soviet Russia, began with the expansion of NATO in the 1990s under Clinton. Bush then further expanded NATO all the way to Russia's borders. Then came the funding of what are euphemistically called NGOs, but they are political action groups, funded by the West, operating inside Russia. Then came the decision to build missile defense installations along Russia's borders, allegedly against Iran, a country which has neither nuclear weapons nor any missiles to deliver them with. Then comes American military outpost in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which led to the war of 2008, and now the West is at the gates of Ukraine. So, that's the picture as Moscow sees it. And it's rational. It's reasonable. It's hard to deny.
But as for the immediate crisis, let's ask ourselves this: Who precipitated this crisis? The American media says it was Putin and the very bad, though democratically elected, president of Ukraine, Yanukovych. But it was the European Union, backed by Washington, that said in November to the democratically elected president of a profoundly divided country, Ukraine, "You must choose between Europe and Russia." That was an ultimatum to Yanukovych. Rememberwasn't reported hereat that moment, what did the much-despised Putin say? He said, "Why? Why does Ukraine have to choose? We are prepared to help Ukraine avoid economic collapse, along with you, the West. Let's make it a tripartite package to Ukraine." And it was rejected in Washington and in Brussels. That precipitated the protests in the streets.
And since then, the dynamic that any of us who have ever witnessed these kinds of struggles in the streets unfolded, as extremists have taken control of the movement from the so-called moderate Ukrainian leaders. I mean, the moderate Ukrainian leaders, with whom the Western foreign ministers are traveling to Kiev to talk, they've lost control of the situation. By the way, people askexcuse meis it a revolution? Is it a revolution? A much abused word, but one sign of a revolution is the first victims of revolution are the moderates. And then it becomes a struggle between the extreme forces on either side. And that's what we're witnessing.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to the Ukrainian opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who admitted earlier today the opposition does not have full control of protesters in Independence Square.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK: The only chance to do it is to stop the riot police, to stop the protesters, to impose a DMZ, like demilitarized zone, and to move this conflict from the streets to the Parliament.

REPORTER 1: Parts of the protesters are out of control?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK: No oneI would be very frank, that the government doesn't control the riot police, and it's very difficult for the opposition to control Maidan. And there are a number of forces who are uncontrolled. This is the truth.

REPORTER 2: So, Ukraine is in chaos now.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK: Ukraine is in a big mess.

AMY GOODMAN: That's Ukrainian opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Professor Cohen?
STEPHEN COHEN: A moderate.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go
STEPHEN COHEN: Who wants to be president.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to President Obama. He's in Mexico for the big Mexico-Canada-U.S. summit talking about Ukraine.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: With regard to Ukraine, along with our European partners, we will continue to engage all sides. And we continue to stress to President Yanukovych and the Ukrainian government that they have the primary responsibility to prevent the kind of terrible violence that we've seen, to withdraw riot police, to work with the opposition to restore security and human dignity, and move the country forward. And this includes progress towards a multi-party, technical government that can work with the international community on a support package and adopt reforms necessary for free and fair elections next year. Ukrainians are a proud and resilient people who have overcome extraordinary challenges in their history, and that's a pride and strength that I hope they draw on now.

AMY GOODMAN: That's President Obama in Mexico, Professor Cohen.
STEPHEN COHEN: What are you asking me to comment on?
AMY GOODMAN: Your response to his response.
STEPHEN COHEN: To what he just said? Shame. Shame. He is saying that the responsibility for restoring peace is on the Ukrainian government, and it should withdraw its security forces from the streets. But let me ask you, if in Washington people throwing Molotov cocktails are marching on Congressand these people are headed for the Ukrainian Congressif these people have barricaded entrance to the White House and are throwing rocks at the White House security guard, would President Obama withdraw his security forces? This isthis isand do you know what this does? And let's escape partisanship here. I mean, lives are at stake. This incites, these kinds of statement that Obama made. It rationalizes what the killers in the streets are doing. It gives them Western license, because he's not saying to the people in the streets, "Stop this, stop shooting policemen, stop attacking government buildings, sit down and talk." And the guy you had on just before, a so-called moderate leader, what did he just tell you? "We have lost control of the situation." That's what I just told you. He just confirmed that.
So what Obama needs to say is, "We deplore what the people in the streets are doing when they attack the police, the law enforcement official. And we also don't like the people who are writing on buildings 'Jews live here,'" because these forces, these quasi-fascist forceslet's address this issue, because the last time I was on your broadcast, you found some guy somewhere who said there was none of this there. All right. What percent are the quasi-fascists of the opposition? Let's say they're 5 percent. I think they're more, but let's give them the break, 5 percent. But we know from history that when the moderates lose control of the situation, they don't know what to do. The country descends in chaos. Five percent of a population that's tough, resolute, ruthless, armed, well funded, and knows what it wants, can make history. We've seen it through Europe. We've seen it through Asia. This is reality. And where Washington and Brussels are on this issue, they won't step up and take the responsibility.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, even in most recent history, whether you look at Libya or whether you look at the situation in Syria, where those presidents warned that there were extremist elements inside a broader popular movement that were eventually going to gain control, this seems like a replay in terms of what's going on here in the Ukraine of a popular movement, but yet a very, very, as you say, right-wing movementnot only a right-wing movement, but a fascist movement with a history. Ukraine has had a history of a fascist movement going back to the days of Nazi Germany.
STEPHEN COHEN: Let's go to real heresy. Let's ask a question: Who has been right about interpreting recent events? Let's go to the Arab Spring. Obama and Washington said this was about democracy now, this is great. Russia said, "Wait a minute. If you destabilize, even if they're authoritarian leaders in the Middle East, you're not going to get Thomas Jefferson in power. You're going to get jihadists. You're going to get very radical people in power all through the Middle East." Looking back, who was right or wrong about that narrative? Have a look at Egypt. Have a look at Libya. Who was right? Can Russians ever be right about anything?
Now what are the Russians saying about Ukraine? They're saying what you just said, that the peaceful protesters, as we keep calling themI think a lot of them have gone home. There were many. By the way, at the beginning, there were hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, of very decent, liberal, progressive, honorable people in the streets. But they've lost control of the situation. That's the point now. And so, the Russians are saying, "Look, you're trying to depose Yanukovych, who's the elected government." Think. If you overthrowand, by the way, there's a presidential election in a year. The Russians are saying wait 'til the next election. If you overthrow himand that's what Washington and Brussels are saying, that he must gowhat are you doing to the possibility of democracy not only in Ukraine, but throughout this part of the world? And secondly, who do you think is going to come to power? Please tell us. And we're silent.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to the famous leaked tape right now. The top State Department official has apologized to her European counterparts after she was caught cursing the European Union, the EU, in a leaked audio recording that was posted to YouTube. The recording captured an intercepted phone conversation between the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, and Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe. Nuland expresses frustration over Europe's response to the political crisis in Ukraine, using frank terms.

VICTORIA NULAND: So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the U.N. help glue it. And, you know, [bleep] the EU.

AMY GOODMAN: While Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's comment about the EU dominated the news headlines because she used a curse, there were several other very interesting parts of her conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

GEOFFREY PYATT: Let me work on Klitschko, and if you can just keepI think we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. Then the other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych, but we can probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.

VICTORIA NULAND: So, on that piece, Geoff, when I wrote the note, Sullivan's come back to me VFR saying, "You need Biden?" And I said, "Probably tomorrow for an attaboy and to get the deets to stick." So Biden's willing.

AMY GOODMAN: That's the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Pyatt, speaking with Victoria Nuland. The significance of what she is saying? She also had gone to Ukraine and was feeding protesters on the front line.
STEPHEN COHEN: Cookies, cookies. Well, here again, the American political media establishment, including the right and the left and the centerbecause they're all complicit in this nonsensefocused on the too sensational, they thought, aspect of that leaked conversation. She said, "F the European Union," and everybody said, "Oh, my god! She said the word." The other thing was, who leaked it? "Oh, it was the Russians. Those dirty Russians leaked this conversation." But the significance is what you just played. What are they doing? The highest-ranking State Department official, who presumably represents the Obama administration, and the American ambassador in Kiev are, to put it in blunt terms, plotting a coup d'état against the elected president of Ukraine.
Now, that said, Amy, Juan, you may say to meneither of you would, but hypothetically"That's a good thing. We don't likewe don't care if he was elected democratically. He's a rat. He's corrupt." And he is all those things. He is. "Let's depose him. That's what the United States should do. Then the United States should stand up and say, 'That's what we do: We get rid of bad guys. We assassinate them, and we overthrow them.'" But in Washington and in Brussels, they lie: They're talking about democracy now. They're not talking about democracy now; they're talking about a coup now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, this is more from
STEPHEN COHEN: And weexcuse meand we shouldwe, American citizens, should be allowed to choose which policy we want. But they conceal it from us. And I'm extremely angry that the people in this country who say they deplore this sort of thing have fallen silent.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Let's listen to little bit more of the leaked conversation between the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, and Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe.

VICTORIA NULAND: Good. So, I don't think Klitsch should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think it's a good idea.

GEOFFREY PYATT: Yeah. I mean, I guess, you thinkin terms of him not going into the government, just let him sort of stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I'm just thinking, in terms of sort of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok and his guys. And, you know, I'm sure that's part of what Yanukovych is calculating on all of this. I kind of

VICTORIA NULAND: I thinkI think Yats is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience. He's the guyyou know, what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week. You know, I just think Klitsch going in, he's going to be at that level working for Yatsenyuk. It's just not going to work.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, speaking with Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine. Stephen Cohen, thisthis chess game
STEPHEN COHEN: You don't need me here. What do you need me for?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: this chess game that they're conducting here?
STEPHEN COHEN: There it is. There it is.
AMY GOODMAN: But explain the names. Who is Klitsch, Yats?
STEPHEN COHEN: All right. And notice the intimacy with which the Americans deal with the two leading so-called "moderate"and these are big shots, they both want to be presidentUkrainian opposition. Klitschko is Vitali Klitschko, a six-foot-eight formerhe resigned his title two months ago to enter politicsheavyweight champion of the world. His residence has been UkraineI mean, Germany. He playshe pays taxes in Germany. He's a project of Merkel. He represents German interests. I'm sure he's also faithful to Ukraine, but he's got a problem. Yatsenyuk, howevernot Yatsenyuk, but the other guy she calls "Yats" is a representative of the Fatherland Party. It's a big party in Parliament. But Washington likes him a lot. They think he'll be our man. So you could see what they're saying. We don't quite trust Klitschko. Now, if you want to get esoteric, that's the tug between Washington and Berlin. They're not happy with Merkel, the chancellor of Germany. They don't like the role Merkel is playing, generally. They think Germany has gotten too big for its britches. They want to cut Merkel down. So you noticed Klitschko, the boxer, is Merkel's proxy, or at least she's backing him. You notice that they say, "He's not ready for prime time. Let him do his homework."
Now, this guyI'm bad on Ukrainian names. Tyagnybok, that they say has got to play a role, he's the leader of the Freedom Party, the Svoboda Party, but a large element of that party, to put it candidly, is quasi-fascist. And they're prepared to embrace this guy. This is the guy, by the way, that Senator John McCain in November or December went to Kiev and embraced. Either McCain didn't know who he was, or he didn't care. The United States is prepared to embrace that guy, tooanything to get rid of Yanukovych, because they think this is about Putin. That's all they really got on their mind.
AMY GOODMAN: And yet, here you have President Obama, again, speaking yesterday in Mexico.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Our approach as the United States is not to see these as some Cold War chessboard in which we're in competition with Russia. Our goal is to make sure that the people of Ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future, that the people of Syria are able to make decisions without having bombs going off and killing women and children, or chemical weapons, or towns being starved, because a despot wants to cling to power.

AMY GOODMAN: Who benefits from the instability, Professor Cohen, in Ukraine? And what does it mean for Putin? Is he concerned about this?
STEPHEN COHEN: Of course he's concerned. It's right on his borders, and it's all tainting him. I mean, The Washington Post wrote an editorial yesterday. Putin is happy that the violence has broken out in the streets. Everybody understands, even The Washington Post understands, which understands almost nothing about Russia, but they got this, that during the Sochi Olympics, the last thing Putin wants is violence in Ukraine. So why is he happy about it? He deplores it. He's unhappy. He's furious at the president of Ukraine. He read him the Riot Act on the phone last night, that why doesn't he get control of the situation? What is he doing? So Putin is not responsible for this. Can we speak about Obama?
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly.
STEPHEN COHEN: Very quickly. I grew up in the segregated South. I voted for him twice, as historical justice. That's not leadership. That's a falsification of what's happening in Ukraine, and it's making the situation worse, what he says, is that we deplore the violence and call upon Ukrainian government to withdraw its forces and stop the violence. He needs to talk about what's happening in the streets.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And is it conceivable, if Ukraine descends into a further civil war, that Russia might intervene?
STEPHEN COHEN: It's conceivable. It's conceivable. HereI mean, Yanukovychyou might say, as an adviser to Yanukovych, the president of Ukraine, "Impose martial law now, because you've got bad PR in the West anyway, and you're not in control of the situation." The problem is, Yanukovych isn't sure he controls the army.
AMY GOODMAN: He just fired the head of the army yesterday.
STEPHEN COHEN: Yeah, we don't know what it means, but it indicates he's not too sure about the army. But, by the way, you asked, would Russia intervene? Would NATO intervene? NATO is all over the place. NATO was in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Ask yourself that: Would NATO send troops in? Is that, yes, you think they would?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I
STEPHEN COHEN: We don't know.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We don't know, yeah.
STEPHEN COHEN: And we're not going to be told, just like we're not being told what's going on in these private conversations about deposing the president of Ukraine. If they depose
AMY GOODMAN: Unless they're leaked again.
STEPHEN COHEN: Yeah, and if the Russians leak them, it doesn't count. Is that right?
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. can hardly protest, given the whole scandal with the NSA recording conversations.
STEPHEN COHEN: Yeah, well, you know what they said. They saidthey said, when this got leaked, that this is a low point in statecraft. After Snowden? After Snowden? I mean, what did Tennessee Williams used to say? Mendacity? Mendacity? The mendacity of it all? Don't they trust us, our government, to tell us a little bit of the truth at last?

[Magda Hassan]

Truce crumbles amid gunfire in Ukraine, protesters claim 100 dead; as many as 15 police killed; thousands injured.....many seriously!

The opposition doesn't want a truce. Some of the protestors may well be peaceful people wanting peaceful changes but nor do they represent the majority of Ukrainians who do not want to become an EU vassal state. Their leaders in the opposition is led by fascisits pure and simple.

Have Ukraine's protests been taken over by this ultra-right-wing group?

DOUG SAUNDERS
KIEV The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Feb. 07 2014, 9:19 PM EST
Last updated Monday, Feb. 10 2014, 9:15 AM EST


32 comments


For the thousands of protesters camped out in Kiev's Independence Square, there is a commonly understood rule: stay away from the fifth floor.
Inside the Soviet-era office building that has been seized as a barracks for protest organizers and guards, the fifth floor is blocked, from the moment you attempt to step off the elevator, by a phalanx of grim-faced men in camouflage fatigues, brush cuts and Mohawks, many of them holding iron bars or other improvised weapons. They don't want visitors.

This is the headquarters of Pravy Sektor, or Right Sector, the ultra-right-wing movement, described by some as fascist, whose hundreds of soldiers (they call themselves an army) have become the sharp edge of the two-month-old protest movement that has upturned the politics of Ukraine, cost several lives and forced President Viktor Yanukovych to dismiss the government and promise to reform the constitution.
The great majority of the hundreds of thousands of "EuroMaidan" protesters who have rallied against Mr. Yanukovych's rejection of a European Union treaty and his moves toward a deal with Russia appear to be either supporters of conventional, centrist or liberal opposition political parties, or pro-European citizens without much interest in party politics at all.
But the physical organization of these protests, the building of barricades around squares, much of the camp construction and policing, and the pitched and sometimes deadly battles with police are almost entirely the work of the extreme right. In some of Ukraine's smaller cities, the local protests and seizures of government buildings appear to have been entirely the work of Pravy Sektor.
Their highly visible presence has led Mr. Yanukovych to dismiss the protests as the product of "extremism, radicalism and incitement to hatred." While the accusation is largely inaccurate, some protest supporters worry that the very visible and largely uncontrollable far right is giving the pro-European movement a bad name.
Here in Kiev, some members of the ragtag army of pipe-wielding, helmeted marshals and guards say they are supporters of the more mainstream right-wing Ukrainian-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, which won about 10 per cent of the vote in 2012 parliamentary elections and whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has a history of using anti-Semitic insults.
But the people in the largest and most aggressive group, who generally refuse to speak to journalists, are members of Pravy Sektor, an umbrella group of fascist, nationalist, football-hooligan and right-wing extremist gangs some with neo-Nazi histories which is generally considered to the right of Svoboda and which tends to be very secretive. It has not, to this point, been a political party.
A senior Pravy Sektor official, in a rare interview, told The Globe and Mail that the admiration his group has won from protesters for its heroic battles with police has led it to consider entering the electoral arena.
"When this revolution is finished, then we will be willing to think about it if we were able to do so much for the country, then why not? People are disillusioned with the official opposition, and we should be listened to," says Artem Skoropadsky , a slight, mild-looking 32-year-old activist who agreed to an interview, after lengthy negotiations with the people on the fifth floor, over beers at a cellar restaurant.
Pravy Sektor's commander and figurehead is Dmitro Yarosh, a bald-headed, burly militant who rarely speaks. Mr. Skoropadsky describes himself as the group's spokesman, but his language suggests that he has a leadership role. And he chooses to speak in Russian, indicating that he is from eastern Ukraine which suggests that the group differs from the Ukrainian-nationalist focus of Svoboda, whose membership has sometimes been restricted to ethnic Ukrainians.
While he says Pravy Sektor is right-wing, Christian and intolerant of any foreign influence in Ukraine, he insists that they are not neo-Nazis or fascists and that they condemn outright racism. But keeping extremists out of a self-professed extremist group is, he admits, not always easy. Some Pravy Sektor members have been spotted wearing neo-Nazi symbols.
"Of course, it is difficult to control everyone," he says. "I know one guy who's got 14/88' [a symbol referring to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf] painted on his shield. But we're trying to purge them. We are a highly disciplined organization."
Despite their history of extreme intolerance, Pravy Sektor has won the admiration of a surprising number of mainstream protest organizers. "The real extremists are on the government side some see the Pravy Sektor people as being too extreme, but we need them now," says Andrey Dzyndzya, a founder of AutoMaidan, which started as a car owners' protest group against highway-police corruption and became a major organizing force in the protests. "We need their kind of radicalism to support the revolution."
There is a paradox here, Mr. Skoropadsky acknowledges. The EuroMaidan (literally "Euro Square") protests began as, and continue to be dominated by, a call for closer relations with the EU Union, yet Pravy Sektor's members are opposed to foreign influence and, like many on the far right, distrust Brussels.
"If you ask me which is better, Russia or the EU, I'd go with the EU Russia is a tyrannical empire," he says. "But we don't think everything's okay with the EU. We are Christians, and we share Christian values, and we don't want the things we see in the EU, such as the idea that gays should have the same rights as everyone."
He would prefer, he says, a "close dialogue and an alliance" with Europe.
Most political experts do not believe Pravy Sektor's popularity would translate into seats in Ukraine, a country that has not traditionally had strong support for the far right.
"Their popularity has been rising only due to public attention," says Volodymyr Fesenko, head of Kiev's Centre for Political Studies. "People support it not because they share its far-right ideology, but because they view it as the opposition's army. Will Pravy Sektor gain if it goes into politics? I don't think so, I even believe that they wouldn't get into parliament."
But Pravy Sektor has loftier ambitions. Its leader, Mr. Yarosh , has boasted of having a cache of weapons sufficient to fight a civil war. His spokesman agrees: "We are an army now, and our group is fully capable of fighting a civil war."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/worl...e16761189/

[Kenneth Kapel]

Steve Clemons, of the New America Foundation, was just chatting with Lawrence O' Donnell on MSNBC on the Kiev riots Both were 100% in favor of "the protesters", even though fascist elements are abundant in the rioting mob. The government is not the best, but the Neo-Nazi elements need at least to be mentioned. I don't expect the "hidden hand" of Western intelligience agencies to EVER be mentioned by the mainstream media.