US/NATO War on Russia

[Paul Rigby]

Turning a Cold War Tactic back on the West: Headquartering «Captive Nations» in Moscow
Wayne MADSEN | 02.03.2014 | 12:05

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/20...oscow.html

During the Cold War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concocted a scheme by which so-called «Captive Nations», so-called «satellite» nations of eastern and central Europe and countries lacking United Nations membership, such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, were treated as subjugated nation-states by the West. These and other non-existent nations, such as White Ruthenia, West Galicia, Cossackia, Ural-Idel, and Turkestan, were regularly lauded by supportive statements from the White House, U.S. Congress, and U.S. statehouses.

With the ouster of the democratically-elected government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by forces representing neo-Nazi, World Bank, and reactionary Ukrainian nationalist forces, the Russian government is in a position to grant «Captive Nation» status to not only a Ukrainian government-in-exile (GIE) but also to any other progressive government overthrown by street mobs and neo-fascists.

The recognition of GIEs as the true representatives of a nation is a time-honored method for projecting «soft power». The presence of representatives of GIEs at international conferences, international organizations, international sporting events, and the establishment of embassies of such GIEs in various capital cities around the world can sow confusion and internecine diplomatic schisms within the ranks of opponent blocs of nations. For example, if Russia were to grant full diplomatic recognition to the GIE of Ukraine, whether headed by Yanukovych or another exiled Ukrainian government official, there could be a demand that such a GIE participate in all international forums dealing with the resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

Russia has used a similar tactic with regard to the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which declared themselves independent of Georgia after the government Tbilisi became riddled with Georgian nationalists who threatened the lives and property of minority Abkhaz, Ossetian, and Russians within Georgia's autonomous republics. The same situation now exists in the autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. The Russian majority of the small Crimean republic, which is also home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, feels threatened by the radical nationalists and neo-Nazis who now dominate many of Ukraine's ministries, including the powerful Security Ministry. A declaration of independence by Crimea and its recognition by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other friendly countries would not only help secure the safety of Crimea's majority population but further burden the U.S. State Department with diplomatic protocol headaches. U.S. diplomats would be hard pressed to keep track of the activities of government officials from Crimea, let alone those from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and possibly also the Transnistrian Republic with its large Russian minority that may find itself also squeezed by nationalist Ukrainians intent on causing harm.

During the Cold War, polemicists like Ukrainian-American right-winger and Georgetown professor Dr. Lev Dobriansky, the creator of the «Captive Nations» mantra, derided the «Soviet yoke» imposed over satellite nations. However, Dobriansky let his true feelings become known when, in 1960, he told a Congressional panel that he believed that the «Cold War» against the West was not started by the Soviet Communists but by the Russian Czarist government in «St. Petersburg and Moscow». In a speech on January 30, 1960 in Washington, DC, Dobriansky accused successive Russian leaders of aggression: Czar Nicholas I was accused of putting down the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Czar Alexander I was accused of threatening Europe with «armed might», Czar Nicholas II was accused of using his armed «steamroller» to threaten all of Europe, and «Czar Nikita [Khrushchev] was accused of suppressing Dobriansky's «captive nations». It was Dobriansky's hatred for all things Russian that was behind his «captive nations» lunacy. Today, Dobriansky's actual heir, his neo-conservative daughter Paula Dobriansky of Harvard University, and his ideological heirs in the neo-conservative ranks, have added Russian President Vladimir Putin to the list of the Russian «demons» that only exist in their own minds.

Chief among the Russophobes is Arizona's aging and decrepit Senator John McCain, who now sees Russians lurking behind every tree. After once proclaiming «we're all Georgians now», he recently muttered «we're all Ukrainians now» before calling for tough sanctions on Russia for its policy toward Ukraine. Arizona is the home of a number of native Indian nations that signed bilateral international treaties with Washington only to see them violated time after time. If Mr. McCain is so worried about Ukrainian national aspiration, one can only think of his response to Moscow inviting the Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odham, Zuni, and Western Apache nations to establish diplomatic missions in the Russian capital. If the West continues to interfere in the domestic affairs of Russia and Ukraine, perhaps it is past time to entertain a Russian response to U.S. and Canadian government subjugation of the native peoples of North America.

Now, nations like Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova, and even Greece find themselves under the yoke of unelected «Eurocrats» in Brussels; central bankers in Frankfurt, London, and New York; and NATO and Pentagon policy makers. Progressive and popularly-elected governments in Venezuela, Thailand, Ecuador, and Nicaragua find themselves subject to street rioting, secessionist movements, and economy destabilization planned and carried out by the CIA and lackeys like global hedge fund tycoon George Soros.
Moscow could become not only the home to GIEs like that of Ukraine but also future GIEs in the event the CIA and its cronies and lackeys are successful in overturning democracy in countries like Venezuela and Thailand. Moscow hosting a number of democratically-elected GIEs would send a message to the world that would expose the fakery and ambiguity of statements by the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, and other Western countries of their commitment to «democracy». In addition to GIEs, the presence of the current embassies of the nations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and possible future embassies of Crimea, Transnistria, and Nagorno-Karabakh would demonstrate Russia's, and only Russia's, commitment to self-determination for peoples suffering under the yoke of neo-colonialism and imperialism, as well as the threat of ethnic cleansing.

GIEs and the embassies of aspirant nations in Moscow, combined with the supporting presence of U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, would be free to state their cases without the incessant propaganda and censorship filters. These censors and filters have been increasingly used as American, British, and other corporate media entities, including the anti-Russian Al Jazeera news network, which is influenced by Britain's MI6 intelligence service and funded by Qatar's pro-Muslim Brotherhood royal family, pump out anti-Russian state propaganda masked as «news» reports.

There is little doubt that the U.S. foreign policy apparatus is beset by structural and political problems. With a U.S. Secretary of State more interested in the appearance of his carefully-coifed hair than in affairs of state and a State Department protocol office apt to misspell the names of foreign leaders like former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and refer to Taiwan as a «province of China», the appearance of Moscow as a center for GIEs and embassies and legations of aspirant nations might send the State Department into a diplomatic tail spin.

Such an initiative would not even have to occur in a physical context. In June 2012, President Putin called for new strives in the area of «digital diplomacy» and the use of «new technologies across multiple platforms, including in the social media, to explain the positions of the state». Many U.S. diplomatic missions abroad have become VPPs, or Virtual Presence Posts. The U.S. diplomatic and consular presence in many locations only exists in cyberspace. Either a virtual presence, physical presence, or, ideally, a combination of the two, in Moscow would be a smart use of Russian soft power to combat continuing American and western forays into the domestic affairs of Russia, Ukraine, and other Eurasian nations, including China's Tibet province. The recent two-day honoring of the Tibetan Dalai Lama by the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC is evidence that the American and western neo-imperialists will not stop with Ukraine and Russia, but complete their goals with the overthrow of China's government and the dismemberment of the People's Republic of China.

The world is at a crossroads. It can follow the West into austerity, bankruptcy, and subjugation as a «captive planet». Or it can stand with the Ukrainian government-in-exile, Russia, China, Venezuela, Thailand, and other progressive countries against the rise of neo-fascism and tyranny…

[Paul Rigby]

Ukraine between powers: Statement of Ukrainian anti-fascist group - See more at: http://kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/u...cist-group

http://kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/u...cist-group

"We have to acknowledge the very unpleasant fact: Ukraine is under a threat of imposing the worst type of dictatorship of the Third World countries: an alliance between the supporters of neoliberal economic policy and the fascist political practice. With the help of such system of rule the new government pushes unpopular reforms that would lead to further impoverishment of the people. And coercive support to such kind of reforms is provided by far-right paramilitary units that should suppress any social protest.

The union "Borotba" calls all citizens of Ukraine opposing to such a development trend - to take part in the activity of the Centre of Anti*fascist Resistance. Anti*-fascism now is not about support of the bankrupt and deposed regime of Janukovich. It is about self*-organizing and uniting all those citizens who don't want to see our country slipping into the abyss of fascist dictatorship.

Instead of a misanthropic ideology of the far-righters, we put forward a set of top-priority demands that should lay a basis for social movement striving to real changes in the country"

The following is a communique of the "Borotba" union and of the Centre of Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine. It first appeared at borotba.org.

Communiqué #3 of the "Borotba" union and of the Centre of Antifascist Resistance

Ukraine is on the brink of fascist dictatorship.

The fascist threat... During the last year the former power and the forces of liberal opposition in Ukraine have made enough so that to make these words sound harmless and prevent Ukrainians from addressing the threat seriously. The pro-government forces used to organize, for their self-advertisement some pseudo-"anti fascist marches" though they failed to take effective actions to prevent the rise of power of the armed nationalist organizations. The oppositional block of liberals and nationalists could easily hit the clumsy rhetoric of the Ukrainian government. As a result, the term "fascism" has become vulgarized, deprived of its historical meaning and even used with a certain irony. Meanwhile, the process of legalization of the extremist far-right ideology in Ukraine was going on at a full pace.

What is fascism? Fascism is a generalized term denoting a bunch of political movements sharing some common ideologic features:

- The idea of superior position of some nations over others. The pervasive belief that a nation and its interests are more important than human rights and freedoms. (while the mere content of the "nation's interest" is being defined by leaders of such movements themselves and mass debates over the issue are suppresed).

It's blind praising of "historical traditions" (again, as they are understood by the right*wing idea-mongers). It's the intrusive belief that the society needs no development, modernization and progress, but rather peculiar "return to the roots", seen as a some magic means that are able to resolve all the problems and contradictions.

It's a hatred towards communism, socialism, ideas of egalitarism and social justice. The fascists set off against these ideas the doctrine of limitless power of the self* proclaimed "social elite" that can drive the cattle into stall'.

The cult of force and violence. Readiness to kill all the political opponents.

And the ideologies of many different nationalist forces that set up a tone to modern Ukrainian policy from the parlamentary party "Svoboda" to newborn "Right Sector" - correspond to these criteria.

Hundreds of thousands came out to the streets of Ukraine so that to protest against the corrupt regime of Janukovich late 2013. Naturally, not all Maydan-*protesters are right*wing radicals (as it was ludicrously claimed by some reactionary propagandists of great* Russian *chauvinism esp. notorious Russian TV star Kysylev and the like). The protest against the bankrupt ruling has gathered people of various beliefs. However, numerous protesters failed to notice that the leadership in this movement was seized by bearers of openly fascist ideology.

It should be stressed that on the Maydan scene there was actually no room to discuss social justice issues or even the most moderate economic reforms that are quite necessary for those who care about interests of the majority of the Ukrainian population, namely - the working class. Along with shoutings "Glory to the nation! Death to the enemy!" the so*-called revolutionaries' have brought to the streets and squares not only red-*black nationalist flags but also the overtly nazi symbols and flags with celtic crosses. Moreover, there appeared a lot of the disgust "wolf crosses" (signs associated with SS) on the walls. Brutal assaults and beatings of political opponents, covered up by so-*called fight against "titushky" or governmental provocators, have become a daily normal practice. And the liberal groups of the protesters have quite consciously turned a blind eye to all these facts, proclaiming a union with far-right extremists a "revolutionary" need and a temporal phenomenon'.

Well, Janukovich's regime has fallen. A new "people's power" has seized control over the most country. Is it high time, maybe, to follow democratic values that were so much discussed at the Maydan? Sadly, the reality suggests that such a hope is futile.

The very first days after the "victory of revolution' saw the destruction of many monuments to V. I. Lenin. One can treat Soviet heritage differently but it is evident that the demolishion of the monuments without any approval of city councils and communities has nothing in common with democratic values.

While repeating ferocious proclamations about the necessity to fight separatist sentiments, MPs of the new majority in Parliament (Rada) remove the law that determines principles of the state language policies, therefore, they limit drastically the rights of Russian and other languages of national minorities in Ukraine. How can this step lead to the unity of the country? On the contrary it will only deepen the contradictions between people in different regions.

Whilst indulging in resonating about the freedom of speech, the our "revolutionaries" introduce the most rigid censorship. The website of the movement "Stop censorship" (while criticizing one of the TV companies in Vinnitsa) threatens the journalists with a visit of armed fighters from the notorious "Right Sector". In the meantime, MPs of "Svoboda" party propose a law limiting the broadcasting of foreign TV channels.

At the same time we witness a real terror-campaign against ideological opponents. Following the pogrom in the central office of the Communist Party of the Ukraine (that was close to the ex-power) , the far-right militants attacked Kiev office of Borotba' union that supports neither former regime nor the present one. The activists of Borotba' are threatened with death. And MP Javorivsky proposed the bill that cancels penalty for negation or public apology of nazi crimes.

The new power has immidiately promised to fight severely against any forceful actions of the opponents to Maydan*. That's why it approved the violence of the militarized nationalists. The new power immediately started legal proceedings against Yevgeny Zhilin, the leader of Kharchiv Anti*-maidan' movement "Oplot". But the leaders of the Right Sector' (like Alexander Musychko, who recently came to the session of Rivne regional council with an assault rifle) are promised to get positions in the Ministry of Interior Affairs

We have to acknowledge the very unpleasant fact: Ukraine is under a threat of imposing the worst type of dictatorship of the Third World countries: an alliance between the supporters of neoliberal economic policy and the fascist political practice. With the help of such system of rule the new government pushes unpopular reforms that would lead to further impoverishment of the people. And coercive support to such kind of reforms is provided by far-right paramilitary units that should suppress any social protest.

The union "Borotba" calls all citizens of Ukraine opposing to such a development trend - to take part in the activity of the Centre of Anti*fascist Resistance. Anti*-fascism now is not about support of the bankrupt and deposed regime of Janukovich. It is about self*-organizing and uniting all those citizens who don't want to see our country slipping into the abyss of fascist dictatorship.

Instead of a misanthropic ideology of the far-righters, we put forward a set of top-priority demands that should lay a basis for social movement striving to real changes in the country:

1. To guarantee equal rights and freedoms for all citizens of the country, regardless of the language used and region of their living.

2. To stop the commercialisation of healthcare and education system, as well as the process of destruction of hospitals and schools. The public services should be accessable to everyone. Otherwise we'll face the further extinction and degrading of our people.

3. To introduce full public control over the process of seting prices and tariffs for public utilities, primary necessities and public transport.

4. To ensure complete realization of the labor legislation as well as decent wages in all enterprises regardless of the form of property. To introduce the system of workers' control in state enterprises.

5. To nationalize the largest enterprises and bring back the control over process of natural resources extraction to the people of Ukraine.

6. To abolish pension reform that raised the pension age. To prevent privatization of pension funds.

7. To liquidate offshore schemes used for transferring out of Ukrainian economy the capital created by labor of millions of Ukrainian people.

8. To create the necessary conditions for open democratic elections of central and local authorities, without predatory practice of bailment for the registration of candidates and party lists. To broaden the power of local authorities. To vest the results of national and regional referenda the with power of laws being mandatory to execute.

You can contact centre of anti-fascist resistance via e mail front@borotba.org. Join our common movement. Start to act now! Together we can save our country!

- See more at: http://kasamaproject.org/threads/entry/u...PANKe.dpuf

[Paul Rigby]

Obama's Ukrainian Blunder
Crimea River
by MIKE WHITNEY

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/04/crimea-river/

MARCH 04, 2014

"There is no question but that Russia is confronted with an existential threat. The integration of Ukraine into the expanding anti-Moscow alliance would render Russia more vulnerable to imperialist aggression and destabilization. Future operations will unfold not only on the periphery of Russia, but within its borders. The United States and the European imperialist powers will have no difficulty finding new "human rights" causes to encourage, finance and arm."

"The Crisis in Ukraine", International Committee of the Fourth International

"In the eastern part of Ukraine and Crimea in particular, we have seen the emergence of people from Kiev with a clear intention of repeating what has been happening in the Western part of Ukraine." (Coup plotters) "want to replace regional governments."

Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Federation's ambassador to the United Nations

Here's something you won't read in the mainstream media: Ukraine's fake revolution is over. It ended when Russian Intelligence agents uncovered a plan by coup plotters to destabilize the Crimea using the same strategy they'd used in Kiev, that is, seizing government buildings, inciting violence, and spreading terror. The discovery, which included "hacked" e mails, shaped events on the ground. Russian troops were deployed to beef up security at the airports and government buildings making it impossible for the putsch to succeed. In other words, the Kremlin implemented its own "preemption" scheme and it worked like a charm. The Washington-backed coup in the Crimea was foiled and order was maintained. Score one for Russia. Here's the scoop from blogger Moon of Alabama from a post titled "The Crimean Anti-Coup Move". Here's an excerpt:

"On February 27 Russian forces stationed in the Crimea and supported by allegedly local paramilitary took over security at two airports and of some government buildings in Crimean cities. A Turkish flight to Simferopol airport was called back and further Turkish fights to Crimea were canceled." ("The Crimean Anti-Coup Move" Moon of Alabama,)

So, what was Russian Intel reacting to, you ask?

Well, according to Voice of Russia, hacked emails pointed to a group of Tatar troublemakers, neo-Nazis and others who were allegedly getting assistance from Turkish Intelligence. There were also two incidents where masked men carried out paramilitary-type operations on government buildings in Simferopol in Crimea on February 27 and February 28 which suggested that something big was afoot. (Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin confirmed that the Crimean interior ministry was attacked on Saturday by armed men sent by Kiev in a statement he made before the UN Security Council.) The incidents were captured on tape and can be seen here:

Here's an excerpt from one of the hacked emails, also from the same post, allegedly between the coup plotters in Kiev and a Tatar leader:

"Everything is going according to the plan. We are ready to proceed with the second part of the play. As agreed earlier last week, my guys together with people from the "Karpatskaya Sech" and UNA-UNSO will arrive wherever is needed and with the necessary weapons. You only need to let us know the addresses of the warehouses in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia and Yalta, and the time of the meeting…" (The Crimean Anti-Coup Move" Moon of Alabama)

Yep, "everything is going according to plan", all right…..Everything except for those Russian regulars that are guarding the buildings we're supposed to blow up. Where'd they come from?

Sounds like a Monty Python skit, doesn't it?

Of course, I have no way of verifying the information here, but it seems like a plausible scenario given what we already know about foreign involvement in these phony made-in-the-US revolutions.

Here's more from the same post:

"According to news appearing in the French, Ukrainian and Russian press, Turkish Intelligence has a finger in the ongoing pro-EU protests in Ukraine. News stories from these three nations have claimed that the governmental intelligence organization of Turkey, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) organized the transfer of separatist, jihadist Tatars trained in Turkey to the Ukraine. According to French news site Egalite et Réconciliation, dozens of Crimean Tatar Jihadists were extracted from Syria by the MİT and transferred to Ukraine via Turkey on an İstanbul-Sevastopol flight of Turkish Airlines on the 22 November. According to information based on sources from the Security Service of Ukraine, (SBU), Crimean Tatars who attended the protests in Ukraine's capital Kiev on November 21 were charged with establishing the security of the square." ("The Crimean Anti-Coup Move" Moon of Alabama)

Nice, eh? So, Turkey's spy agency is arming and training "jihadist Tatars" and then shipping them off to Ukraine to fight in Uncle Sam's NWO Sweepstakes? What a tangled web we weave. But, then, just about everyone knew that the so called Ukrainian "revolution" was a big, fat fraud engineered by foreign Intel agencies, subversive NGOs and voracious globalist oligarchs. Still, it makes it a lot easier when the main players leave their fingerprints on the murder weapon so you can figure out who's who. In this case, we know the State Department was at least tangentially involved because of Victoria Nuland's hacked phone call. At the very least, we know that the Obama braintrust was pulling strings behind the scenes to get rid of the democratically-elected president Viktor Yanukovych and replace him with a compliant US puppet. And they certainly succeeded in that regard, too. It's the rest of the plan that went south.

You may have noticed that the above post mentions a third group along with the Tatar jihadis and the Nazis. They also mention the UNA-UNSO. So who the heck are these guys anyway?

As it turns out, political analyst, F. William Engdahl has done a bit of research on the group and gives a rundown in a recent article titled "The Rape of Ukraine; Phase Two Begins". Here's what he says:

"The question unanswered until now is who deployed the snipers? (who shot into the crowd in Maidan Square) 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).

…

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….

"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…..

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." (F. William Engdahl, "The Rape of Ukraine; Phase Two Begins", Information Clearinghouse)

So, were there NATO-backed paramilitaries on the ground stirring up trouble prior to the coup? Did they instigate the coup by firing into the crowd on Maidan Square, killing innocent people and creating the panic that forced Yanukovych to flee the country? Did they execute this plan to avoid new elections which were agreed upon by the opposing parties? Did they execute the plan to take advantage of the fact that Putin was still bogged down at the Olympic games and unable to give the crisis his undivided attention?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered, but even without all the details, there's certainly enough to suggest that agents of foreign governments played a critical role in toppling Ukraine's president.

At present, the situation in the Crimea appears to be relatively calm due to stepped up security. The Russian military has secured the main government buildings, airports, military bases and harbors. Working people are still able to carry out their daily activities much as they had before the government was toppled. Putin has done what he had to do to defend Russian security and protect Russian-speaking people in the Crimea. Obama would have done the same thing had he been in a similar situation.

Naturally, the Obama team is hopping mad. Their plan failed, they have egg on their face, and they want revenge. That's why they dispatched the dreary John Kerry to make the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, so he could wave his finger threateningly at Putin while boring people to death with his monotone bloviating. The whole Obama team is having a giant hissyfit because they rolled the dice and came up snakeyes. That's unfortunate, but what do they plan to do about it; that's the question? After all, holding your breath and stomping your feet may be personally gratifying, but it doesn't translate into effective foreign policy. That takes insight, vision and a solid grasp of the facts, all of which are sadly lacking among the dismal members of the present administration. The problem is, there are no good options. Aside from launching a full-blown ground war, which nobody wants, Obama is just going to have to suck it up and move on, because, at the end of the day, Moscow's still going to control the Crimea and Obama and his EU collaborators are still going to be stuck with a broken, underwater province run by technocrats, kleptocrats, and neo-Nazi, clownshoes politicos. So, deal with it.

Here's how the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, summed it up in an interview on CNN earlier in the week. He said, "This is not Syria, where the United States did have real options, and the president chose not to implement them. Here we really don't have very good options to introduce."

Indeed. There are "no good options" which is why we think that Moscow will shrug off the mudslinging and the saber rattling and go about its business much like before. In the words of an old Russian proverb, "Dogs bark, but the caravan passes on."

MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

[Paul Rigby]

Obama's Ukrainian Blunder
Crimea River
by MIKE WHITNEY

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/04/crimea-river/

MARCH 04, 2014

Here's something you won't read in the mainstream media: Ukraine's fake revolution is over. It ended when Russian Intelligence agents uncovered a plan by coup plotters to destabilize the Crimea using the same strategy they'd used in Kiev, that is, seizing government buildings, inciting violence, and spreading terror. The discovery, which included "hacked" e mails, shaped events on the ground. Russian troops were deployed to beef up security at the airports and government buildings making it impossible for the putsch to succeed. In other words, the Kremlin implemented its own "preemption" scheme and it worked like a charm. The Washington-backed coup in the Crimea was foiled and order was maintained. Score one for Russia. Here's the scoop from blogger Moon of Alabama from a post titled "The Crimean Anti-Coup Move". Here's an excerpt:

"On February 27 Russian forces stationed in the Crimea and supported by allegedly local paramilitary took over security at two airports and of some government buildings in Crimean cities. A Turkish flight to Simferopol airport was called back and further Turkish fights to Crimea were canceled." ("The Crimean Anti-Coup Move" Moon of Alabama,)

So, what was Russian Intel reacting to, you ask?

Well, according to Voice of Russia, hacked emails pointed to a group of Tatar troublemakers, neo-Nazis and others who were allegedly getting assistance from Turkish Intelligence.

The Crimean Anti-Coup Move

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/03/the....html#more

In mid December 2013(!) the Turkish website Aydinlik Daily reported:

According to news appearing in the French, Ukrainian and Russian press, Turkish Intelligence has a finger in the ongoing pro-EU protests in Ukraine. News stories from these three nations have claimed that the governmental intelligence organization of Turkey, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) organized the transfer of separatist, jihadist Tatars trained in Turkey to the Ukraine. According to French news site Egalite et Réconciliation, dozens of Crimean Tatar Jihadists were extracted from Syria by the MİT and transferred to Ukraine via Turkey on an İstanbul-Sevastopol flight of Turkish Airlines on the 22 November. According to information based on sources from the Security Service of Ukraine, (SBU), Crimean Tatars who attended the protests in Ukraine's capital Kiev on November 21 were charged with establishing the security of the square. The Crimean security staff who obtained the support of separatist "Azatlık" movement operating in Russian city of Kazan received political support from Nail Nabiullin, the current president of Tatar Youth League in Azatlık.

An February 26, shortly after the Kiev coup-government was installed, Tataric groups rioted in the Crimean capital:

In Crimea, fistfights broke out between rival demonstrators in the regional capital of Simferopol when some 20,000 Muslim Tatars rallying in support of Ukraine's interim leaders clashed with a smaller pro-Russian rally. The protesters shouted and attacked each other with stones, bottles and punches, as police and leaders of both rallies struggled to keep the two groups apart.

One health official said at least 20 people were injured, while the local health ministry said one person died from an apparent heart attack. Tatar leaders said there was a second fatality when a woman was trampled to death by the crowd. Authorities did not confirm that.

[Paul Rigby]

The clash in Crimea is the fruit of western expansion
The external struggle to dominate Ukraine has put fascists in power and brought the country to the brink of conflict

Seumas Milne
The Guardian, Wednesday 5 March 2014 20.30 GMT

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...e-fascists

Diplomatic pronouncements are renowned for hypocrisy and double standards. But western denunciations of Russian intervention in Crimea have reached new depths of self parody. The so far bloodless incursion is an "incredible act of aggression", US secretary of state John Kerry declared. In the 21st century you just don't invade countries on a "completely trumped-up pretext", he insisted, as US allies agreed that it had been an unacceptable breach of international law, for which there will be "costs".

That the states which launched the greatest act of unprovoked aggression in modern history on a trumped-up pretext against Iraq, in an illegal war now estimated to have killed 500,000, along with the invasion of Afghanistan, bloody regime change in Libya, and the killing of thousands in drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, all without UN authorisation should make such claims is beyond absurdity.

It's not just that western aggression and lawless killing is on another scale entirely from anything Russia appears to have contemplated, let alone carried out removing any credible basis for the US and its allies to rail against Russian transgressions. But the western powers have also played a central role in creating the Ukraine crisis in the first place.

The US and European powers openly sponsored the protests to oust the corrupt but elected Viktor Yanukovych government, which were triggered by controversy over an all-or-nothing EU agreement which would have excluded economic association with Russia.

In her notorious "fuck the EU" phone call leaked last month, the US official Victoria Nuland can be heard laying down the shape of a post-Yanukovych government much of which was then turned into reality when he was overthrown after the escalation of violence a couple of weeks later.

The president had by then lost political authority, but his overnight impeachment was certainly constitutionally dubious. In his place a government of oligarchs, neoliberal Orange Revolution retreads and neofascists has been installed, one of whose first acts was to try and remove the official status of Russian, spoken by a majority in parts of the south and east, as moves were made to ban the Communist party, which won 13% of the vote at the last election.

It has been claimed that the role of fascists in the demonstrations has been exaggerated by Russian propaganda to justify Vladimir Putin's manoeuvres in Crimea. The reality is alarming enough to need no exaggeration. Activists report that the far right made up around a third of the protesters, but they were decisive in armed confrontations with the police.

Fascist gangs now patrol the streets. But they are also in Kiev's corridors of power. The far right Svoboda party, whose leader has denounced the "criminal activities" of "organised Jewry" and which was condemned by the European parliament for its "racist and antisemitic views", has five ministerial posts in the new government, including deputy prime minister and prosecutor general. The leader of the even more extreme Right Sector, at the heart of the street violence, is now Ukraine's deputy national security chief.

Neo-Nazis in office is a first in post-war Europe. But this is the unelected government now backed by the US and EU. And in a contemptuous rebuff to the ordinary Ukrainians who protested against corruption and hoped for real change, the new administration has appointed two billionaire oligarchs one who runs his business from Switzerland to be the new governors of the eastern cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk. Meanwhile, the IMF is preparing an eye-watering austerity plan for the tanking Ukrainian economy which can only swell poverty and unemployment.

From a longer-term perspective, the crisis in Ukraine is a product of the disastrous Versailles-style break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. As in Yugoslavia, people who were content to be a national minority in an internal administrative unit of a multinational state Russians in Soviet Ukraine, South Ossetians in Soviet Georgia felt very differently when those units became states for which they felt little loyalty.

In the case of Crimea, which was only transferred to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s, that is clearly true for the Russian majority. And contrary to undertakings given at the time, the US and its allies have since relentlessly expanded Nato up to Russia's borders, incorporating nine former Warsaw Pact states and three former Soviet republics into what is effectively an anti-Russian military alliance in Europe. The European association agreement which provoked the Ukrainian crisis also included clauses to integrate Ukraine into the EU defence structure.

That western military expansion was first brought to a halt in 2008 when the US client state of Georgia attacked Russian forces in the contested territory of South Ossetia and was driven out. The short but bloody conflict signalled the end of George Bush's unipolar world in which the US empire would enforce its will without challenge on every continent.

Given that background, it is hardly surprising that Russia has acted to stop the more strategically sensitive and neuralgic Ukraine falling decisively into the western camp, especially given that Russia's only major warm-water naval base is in Crimea.

Clearly, Putin's justifications for intervention "humanitarian" protection for Russians and an appeal by the deposed president are legally and politically flaky, even if nothing like on the scale of "weapons of mass destruction". Nor does Putin's conservative nationalism or oligarchic regime have much wider international appeal.

But Russia's role as a limited counterweight to unilateral western power certainly does. And in a world where the US, Britain, France and their allies have turned international lawlessness with a moral veneer into a permanent routine, others are bound to try the same game.

Fortunately, the only shots fired by Russian forces at this point have been into the air. But the dangers of escalating foreign intervention are obvious. What is needed instead is a negotiated settlement for Ukraine, including a broad-based government in Kiev shorn of fascists; a federal constitution that guarantees regional autonomy; economic support that doesn't pauperise the majority; and a chance for people in Crimea to choose their own future. Anything else risks spreading the conflict.

Twitter: @SeumasMilne

[Lauren Johnson]

Must read from The Vineyard of the Saker -- it's been done before, expect it, and nobody cares and it is going nowhere.

And here's Putin's Press Conference

[Magda Hassan]

Interestingly the doctor, quoted by the Estononian man from Foreign Ministry, who has been interviewed about the supposed snipers now denies saying such a thing and said she only saw protestors and did not have access to military people.

The doctor, who is supposed to have talked with Paet, is apparently denying, that she said such things:

" 15.17 Our correspondent, Damien McElroy, has spoken to the doctor at the centre of the claims that snipers that shot people in Kiev were hired by Maidan leaders:

Olga Bogomolets said she had not told Mr Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same manner.

"Myself I saw only protesters. I do not know the type of wounds suffered by military people," she told The Telegraph. "I have no access to those people." http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014...-know.html

However here she is saying the complete opposite. In an interview on the 20th of Feb. she said she did treat military and Berkut.



Reminds me of the rehearsed hospital scenes in Syria by the women doctors there.

[Lauren Johnson]

First, the US/NATO axis shows every intention of rolling up Russia. Putin with the strong backing of his people will not let that happen without a fight. During the Cold War, our official policy was containment. Now, it is quietly spoken, it's regime change. Second, Russia has nuclear weapons. Third, US and NATO leaders are pushing forward with confidence. We hear no discussions about detente and compromise, as was common during the Cold War years. Therefore, we have a confident aggressor and a country increasingly feeling cornered. Fourth, that country has nuclear weapons. Fifth, I have not heard anything about there being a "no first strike" policy. With Iran, we heard the phrase "All options are on the table." Are all options still on the table?

And then there is this: Why There Will Be War In The Ukraine from The Moscow Times

The current crisis is not about Crimea. It is about the rights of Russian-speakers throughout Ukraine whom the Kremlin wants to protect from violence and discrimination. Russia does not want a military intervention in Crimea and does not want to take Crimea from Ukraine.

There is a political solution to this crisis. First, create a coalition government in Kiev composed of all parties, including those from the east and south of the country. The current government is dominated by anti-Russian extremists from western Ukraine.

Second, Ukraine needs to draft a democratic constitution that has guarantees for Ukraine's Russian-speaking population that would grant official status to the Russian language and establish the principle of federalism.
Third, presidential and parliamentary elections must be held soon. Independent election observers must play an active role in ensuring that the elections are free and fair. There is a real danger that they will be manipulated by the neo-Nazi militants who de facto seized power in a coup.

If these democratic and peaceful solutions to the crisis in Ukraine are rejected by the opposition forces that have seized power in Kiev, I am afraid that Russia will have no other choice but to revert to military means. If the junta leaders want to avoid war, they need to adopt Moscow's peaceful and democratic proposals and adhere to them.

Those currently in power in Kiev are carrying out a political strategy that is not so much pro-European as it is anti-Russian, as evidenced by the surprisingly heavy-handed tactics the U.S. and European Union have employed in Ukraine. In the end, a minority executed a violent coup that removed the democratically elected and legitimate president of Ukraine.

The Kremlin believes that the current Ukrainian leadership will manipulate the elections planned for May 25 to install a single leader or coalition government functioning much as former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili did in Tbilisi. A "Ukrainian Saakashvili" will unleash an even more repressive campaign of intimidation against Russian-speakers, one that over several years would stoke anti-Russia hysteria among the general population.

After that, Kiev may evict Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol and purge Crimea of any Russian influence. Ukraine could easily become a radicalized, anti-Russian state, at which point Kiev will fabricate a pretext to justify taking subversive action against Moscow. This looks especially likely considering that ruling coalition members from the neo-fascist Svoboda and Right Sector parties have already made territorial claims against Russia. They could easily send their army of activists to Russia to join local separatists and foment rebellion in the North Caucasus and other unstable regions in Russia. In addition, Russia's opposition movement will surely want to use the successful experience and technology of the Euromaidan protests and, with the help and financial support of the West, try to carry out their own revolution in Moscow. The goal: to remove President Vladimir Putin from power and install a puppet leadership that will sell Russia's strategic interests out to the West in the same way former President Boris Yeltsin did in the 1990s.

The official census puts the Russian minority in Ukraine at 16 percent of the total population, although that number was falsified. The actual number is closer to 25 percent. Surveys indicate that 45 percent of the country's population speak Russian at home, 45 percent speak Ukrainian and 10 percent speak both languages. In the most recent Gallup survey, when asked in which language they would like to be polled, 83 percent of respondents chose Russian. Taking into account the rural population in western and central Ukraine, about 75 percent of the people, probably speak Russian. Of that 75 percent, only about 10 percent are those in Kiev and a few other major cities who supported the protests. This means that only 35 percent of the population are attempting to impose its will on the remaining 65 percent, using a violent coup to achieve their goals.

Putin made the right decision: He did not to wait for that attack and took preventative measures. Many in the West say the Kremlin's reactions were paranoiac, but Germany's Jews also thought the same of leaving the country in 1934. Most of them chose to believe they were safe and remained in Germany even after Hitler came to power. The infamous Kristallnacht took place five years later, one of the first early chapters in the "Final Solution." Similarly, just four years remain until Russia's presidential election in 2018, and there is a strong risk that subversive forces within and outside Russia will try to overthrow Putin, in part using their new foothold in Ukraine.

Will there be war in Ukraine? I am afraid so. After all, the extremists who seized power in Kiev want to see a bloodbath. Only fear for their own lives might stop them from inciting such a conflict. Russia is prepared to move its forces into southern and eastern Ukraine if repressive measures are used against the Russian-speaking population or if a military intervention occurs. Russia will not annex Crimea. It has enough territory already. At the same time, however, it will also not stand by passively while Russophobic and neo-Nazi gangs hold the people of Crimea, Kharkiv and Donetsk at their mercy.

[Lauren Johnson]

Long article. Short answer. Obama was in danger of actually becoming a successful president, when Putin gave him a way out of his Syrian policy. The Ukraine crisis is serving to get Obama firmly under back control.

[Magda Hassan]

Long article. Short answer. Obama was in danger of actually becoming a successful president, when Putin gave him a way out of his Syrian policy. The Ukraine crisis is serving to get Obama firmly under back control.

Yes, there are a lot of neo-con connected players in this. And Russophobes like Zbigniew Brzezinski, for whom Obama is supposed to be a sock puppet, are having an exciting time with this.