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US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine


Steven Gaal

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http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_12_14/US-NATO-EU-and-the-desperate-subversion-of-Ukraine-8010/

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Today what we are seeing in Ukraine are the now overt manifestations of a long-running covert subversion of Ukraine by all of the instruments used by the United States, including those controlled by CIA, the State Department, the military industrial complex, banks, NGOs, corporations and US surrogates in the EU and NATO, which for simplicity we will call "US/NATO". Since the collapse of the USSR (and some might argue since NATO’s very creation) US/NATO have been intensely consolidating their hegemony and control over Eastern Europe using each and every instrument at their disposal and pouring billions of dollars into the effort.

0These efforts include cultural, economic, educational, judicial, media, military, political, religious, security, social and trade manipulations and subversions all designed to subvert the sovereignty of Ukraine and bring it under permanent and total US/NATO control. The efforts by US/NATO in manipulating Ukraine have been so wide-ranging and at times subtle that it may now be difficult to extract the influences entirely from Ukrainian society and even more so from the minds of the Ukrainian people.

0Many Ukrainians believe, as do the peoples of many countries that have been the subject of the massive subversion efforts of the US machine, that the parroted words "democracy" and "freedom" actually mean something to the US/NATO, for these are the standard reasons that the common people are given when they are pushed into accepting things that will in fact subvert the sovereignty of their countries and subjugate themselves to the US/NATO machine.

0The words "freedom" and "democracy" are constantly parroted by officials and the subservient western media when reporting or discussing Ukraine thus giving the common people the impression that this is in fact what the protests in the abstract-far-way-land are all about. This is also true for western subverted internal Ukrainian media outlets, who claim to be exercising freedom of the press, when in fact they are engaged in the very subversions of their own countries. The promotion and portrayal of efforts at subversion as being in the best interests of the citizens are all important parts of CIA and US/NATO psychological and media operations and are key in bringing about the desired results, including such as what we are seeing now in Ukraine.

0Without going into specifics as they are available anywhere on the net subversive efforts in Ukraine have targeted every sector of the population and have benefited from keeping the economic conditions of Ukrainians weak so that Ukrainians are dissatisfied and looking to the "West" for betterment. This is a false hope and a false savior but as Russia found out an idea that took hold and continues to be promoted in Ukraine unlike Russia which finally saw the beast of the West for what it really was and said no to NGOs USAID and US/NATO’s takeover of Russia.

0The efforts have included first and foremost information and media manipulation, through organizations like USAID and NGOs civil society manipulation including in educational institutions (through subtle rewrites of history and carefully constructed curricula), health clinics and as we have seen in the past sterilization programs and the like (not necessarily in Ukraine but nonetheless used for population control and getting rid of undesirable populations). Other efforts include everything from fast food outlets (degrading the national diet and more importantly national mealtimes) and addicting the population (through subtle chemical additives and the like), entertainment (glorifying America and their depraved culture of sex and violence), internet (the favored tool for monitoring surveillance and control through social media) and everything and anything else that can be used to subvert the Ukrainian identity and glorify the West. The above tactics are not part of some conspiracy theory but tired and proven instruments of the NSA, the CIA and US/NATO.

0When all of these fail (or in addition to the above) US/NATO might foment inter-ethnic, sectarian or religious strife and manipulate divisions and when all of those mechanisms fail to bring about the changes they seek to bring the country under control they will then resort to arming the opposition and as in Yugoslavia, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and then they attempt in Syria, providing military and air-support to forcibly remove the leadership of the country and install their puppet regimes.

0In Russia such attempts were in fact stopped thanks to a strong president and attentive security services however in Ukraine, as in almost all of the former Soviet Republics the demonization of Russia coupled with poor economic conditions, glorification of US/NATO/EU, and all or some of the above efforts, the security services failed. In Ukraine this failure has led to a pliable and divided population ready to believe anything the West says and ready to submit to whatever the West wants almost without argument. And in the final ready to engage in treasonous activities against their own country, people and government.

0Current situation

0I would hope that this will be read by at least some of the Ukrainian people so that they might take time to consider what in fact they are tearing their country apart over. I would also plea with the Ukrainian people to in fact study what the realities are of what they EU is offering before they criticize their government or take part in western-backed demonstrations.

0What the EU offers

0On the surface what the West is offering Ukraine with its EU integration package is somehow a better economic situation for the country and its citizens, something that of course is attractive to those facing economic hardships and unemployment, but the reality is that in dollar value the plus for Ukraine is a mere $1 billion over seven years. This will be in exchange for a large part of Ukrainian sovereignty including control of trade, manufacturing and the like which will take the form of legally binding instruments supposedly designed to bring Ukraine into EU "compliance". It will also include the eventual loss of military sovereignty when Ukraine is forced to accept integration into NATO, which will not come cheap, will have to be paid for by Ukraine and take away money from social programs.

0This NATO integration is the key goal for the West in Ukraine. Nothing else matters.

0Such integration will also call for the Black Sea Fleet to be evicted and for the Ukrainian people to turn their backs (effectively) on their Slavic brothers to the North (Note: I rarely mention ethnic aspects but promoting unity among peoples who share historical roots is not a bad thing I believe) and open their arms and more importantly pockets, to the morally and otherwise bankrupt nations of US/NATO.

0In brief what US/NATO offers Ukraine is the giving up of sovereignty, the opening up of markets and workforces to exploitation, and in the end the territory on which to establish their military infrastructure and on which to stations missiles to aim at Russia.

0All talk of "assistance packages" must also be looked at with suspicion. While sounding as if the West is interested in assisting Ukraine, such economic mechanism are always come with conditions attached, including "reforms", legislation, regulation and of course there is the question of payback at a percentage. Nothing good is free and the Trojan Horse that the EU is offering is a dangerous one indeed.

0What Russia offers

0I am not an expert and there are certainly professors, legal scholars and economists who have studied all of the agreements in detail but, overall from the research I have done, the facts are as I have set them out here.

0Russia is offering Ukraine further integration in an economic block which will see its trade increased with the Russian Federation and which will bring Ukraine and the Ukrainian people over $100 billion dollars in the same seven year period that US/NATO/EU are offering a mere $1 billion.

0What is more Russia is not demanding that Ukraine "reform" its government, or change legislation or in any other way give up an ounce of its sovereignty. Nor is Russia demanding the stationing of its troops in Ukraine or the installation of missiles to point at some bogeyman.

0For Ukraine it is a win-win with Russia and it is a logical choice for the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people. Russia and Ukraine share a long and deep shared history, shared languages, shared faith, a shared national character and a shared faith. Any division, even only in the Orthodox Faith, where deeper rapport was recently achieved must not be allowed to stand.

0The US/NATO/EU strategy of divide and conquer must not be allowed to stand and anyone guilty of promoting it, I would argue is guilty of treason not only to their own country but to their own people.

0Will Ukraine look out for its own best interests?

0The President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych must be applauded for having the courage, the intelligence and the vision to pursue a path that is best for his country and for his people. Will he follow the lead of Russian President Vladimir Putin and demand respect for the sovereignty of his nation? The answer to that appears to be yes.

0On Friday President Yanukovych promised to sack all of the officials who were in charge of preparing the Association and Free Trade Area Agreement with the European Union which they tried to push through under pressure from US/NATO/EU.

0"Those who prepared the agreement will be relieved of their duties or sacked altogether," he said during a round-table discussion to seek a way out of the crisis.

0US/NATO/EU try to pressure Ukraine during internal crisis

0What the US/NATO/EU are doing, both covertly and now overtly, to attempt to influence the internal political processes in the country and even bring about the removal of yet another leader are clearly acts of subversion and in real terms anyone inside the country who is knowingly assisting in such is guilty of treason. It is an internal sovereign Ukrainian decision which must be supported and must be protected from outside interference.

0The level of open US interference has been called many things, even "crazy" by Russian officials, and goes further to underline the real intentions of US/NATO/EU for Ukraine. It is hard to imagine that there would be such a violent reaction from any country for the refusal to sign a mere trade and integration agreement and it shows the insane anti-Russia hysteria that still exists in the West.

0US/NATO/EU attempts at influencing Ukraine

0The attempts by the West at influencing Ukraine into rushing into an agreement with the EU have been unprecedented in scope quantity and degree and have included everything but threats of military strikes or arming the opposition to start bloodshed in the country.

0The infrastructure that CIA installed to bring about the Orange Revolution appears to be intact and has been reactivated but apparently this time around the support is just not there, so CIA/State have brought out every other thing they can think of including:

0- A White House online petition demanding the US government impose sanctions on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

0- Calls by the US backed opposition for early elections and for the government to resign

0- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland presence at demonstrations and joining in demanding the fall of democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych.

0- German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle arriving at a protest camp with two opposition leaders and saying "Ukraine should be on board with Europe."

0- US State Department said on Wednesday it is considering all options, including sanction

0EC actions are flagrant interference in internal affairs - Medvedev

0Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called recent visits by members of the European Commission to a protest site in Kyiv as "flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state."

0"Flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state is the only way I can describe the trips (to Ukraine) by some officials from the European Union and from other countries with visits to sites of civil protest activity, and sites of unauthorized events," he said.

0Prime Minister Medvedev also has branded recent visits of members of the European Commission to a site of mass pro-European Union demonstrations in Kyiv as "crazy."

0"It looks pretty crazy when incumbent ministers or European Commissioners come out onto a square. I don't think this is the way to behave in the 21st century," he told a news conference in Moscow.

0In a television interview with Russian media Prime Minister Medvedev said the actions by the West were a threat to Ukraine as a country and an attack on their sovereignty.

0US/NATO/EU obtuse

0"Some of the comments that have been made by American officials over the last few days are shocking," Sergei Ryabkov told Russian government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

0I may assure you that we have sent all the necessary signals via Ms. Nuland (US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland) to the effect that interference in domestic processes in Ukraine may have very serious consequences," he said.

0"But it appears that we haven't been heard in Washington again," he added.

0Revenge for Syria worse than just revenge for Syria

0The US attempts to influence the situation in Ukraine are a desire to get revenge for the defeat in Syria said the head of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Alexei Pushkov.

0"This hysterical reaction of the West to the fact that Ukraine refused to sign the association agreement with the EU, these political troops, which were landed there, the arrival of the Americans (although the European association is not their business), all these immediately shows, who was behind this idea: the wires are in the hands of the United States," the MP said.

0"The nerves of the State Department have snapped, it was staying away, but it can resist any longer: '… we can't endure it any more – we are going to you with pies, ' this is not a demonstration of the strength of the EU and USA, but of their weakness," he said.

0Pushkov is convinced that after the defeat of the USA in Syria, after all these failures in the foreign policy, Washington has a great desire to "take revenge in Ukraine", to show that the West has the initiative, that the West is still the force that determines the course of events in global affairs. "Ukraine has become the arena, which determines whether the West is losing the initiative or not," he said.

0US continues pulling out all the stops in Ukrainian interference

0US Senator John McCain, who is a key figure in almost every country that the US has attempted to or succeeded in bringing about a regime change or a military invasion is to arrive in Ukraine over the weekend, the highest-ranking US official to meet with the opposition and protestors.

0"Senator McCain is traveling to Ukraine to meet with government officials, opposition leaders and civil society at this critical time as Ukrainians struggle for their future," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told The Daily Beast.

0McCain is supposed to be in Kyiv on Saturday and Sunday, according to the report. He will be joined there Sunday by Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, according to The Daily Beast.

0It is not clear upon whose invitation he is arriving in Ukraine but it is clear as with Moscow that organizers of color revolutions and middlemen for the CIA are always called in when US/NATO are desperate to effect regime change. Whether his presence will be welcomed by President Yanukovych remains to be seen.

0Hopefully the appearance of McCain in Ukraine is not a sign that the West is ready to push Ukraine into a civil war but judging from McCain’s past record and his involvement in Benghazi, Libya, Iraq and other US war zones, this may be a distinct possibility.

0Continuing Russophobic hysteria

0The irrational and "crazy" reaction by US/NATO/EU to a simple trade decision might be easier to understand given the light of the continuing and even escalated Russophobia in the West, something promoted by NATO which is desperately trying to stay relevant, by the US which needs a bogeyman to maintain the profit margins for the Military Industrial Complex and by the EU which seeks to appease its US/NATO masters.

0Again, and I have said this many times, European Russia makes up 40% of Europe and Ukraine is the largest country in Europe aside from Russia, so the ongoing attempts by the EU to somehow exclude Russia from Europe are also not entirely sane or logical to put it mildly.

0Voice of Russia regular Rick Rozoff recently stated in an interview with the Voice of Russia in which he discussed Russian media that Russophobia continues and has escalated in the US.

0"… despite the end of Soviet Communism there was no end of Russophobia, that not only continued but I would argue in many ways it has been escalated."

0Continuing desperate attempts at achieving hegemony

0The attempts by US/NATO/EU to pull Ukraine into its sphere of influence and away from Russia only show the desperation that they have in proving to the world that they are still the masters of all of us and follows the policy of the West that any country that shows any modicum of independence or sovereignty must either have its leader gotten rid of or must be destroyed entirely.

0The views and opinions expressed here are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.

Edited by Steven Gaal
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UPDATE :news:news:news

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POST #2 occurred (PLUS Putin continues to back Assad) then ........BOMBINGS IN RUSSIA >>>>>>CONNECTED ???????????????????? YOU DECIDE

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US/Saudi covert operations in Chechnya: Ricin, diamonds, Stingers ...

english.pravda.ru › LINK
Apr 30, 2013 - It was then that the US and Saudi intelligence organizations figured out that diamonds from the African Continent would be a worthy convertible ...
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Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria - Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk LINK

Aug 27, 2013 - Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin ... but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia's Winter ...

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

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POST #2 occurred (PLUS Putin continues to back Assad) then ........BOMBINGS IN RUSSIA >>>>>>CONNECTED ???????????????????? YOU DECIDE

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US readying sanctions against Ukraine, aides say

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Latest update : 2014-01-30 france24

Washington is preparing financial sanctions that could be imposed on Ukrainian officials and protest leaders if violence escalates in the political crisis gripping the country, congressional aides told Reuters on

http://www.france24.com/en/20140130-usa-sanctions-ukraine-yanukovich-protests/#./?&_suid=139108471410909109448311345978

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Germany, US Push Aggressive Policies at Munich Security Conference

Global Research, February 03, 2014

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This weekend, some 400 leading international political and military figures and representatives of defense contractors, banks and corporations gathered at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) to discuss the global military and security situation. Both John Kerry and Chuck Hagel participated, marking the first time the US secretaries of state and defense both attended the conference.

The MSC featured a series of speeches by top German officials announcing an aggressive military policy, effectively repudiating the traditional restraints on German militarism that have existed since the collapse of the Nazi regime at the end of World War II. The belligerent tone of the conference was laid down by the former East German pastor and current president of Germany, Joachim Gauck.

Declaring that Germany must stop using its past—i.e., its role in starting two world wars in the 20th century—as a “shield,” Gauck called for the country’s armed forces to be used more frequently and decisively. “Germany can’t carry on as before,” Gauck argued. It was necessary to overcome German indifference and European navel-gazing, he said, in the face of “rapid” and “dramatic” new threats to the “open world order.”

This was a signal that German imperialism intends to intervene, militarily if need be, in the world’s major conflicts—the Middle East wars, most prominently the US-led proxy war in Syria; Berlin’s conflict with Moscow over Ukraine; and East Asia, where the US is carrying out a “pivot to Asia” against China.

Gauck made clear that the interests of German imperialism spanned the globe and raised a number of questions: “Are we doing what we can to stabilise our neighbourhood, both in the East and in Africa? Are we doing what we have to in order to counter the threat of terrorism? And, in cases where we have found convincing reasons to join our allies in taking even military action, are we willing to bear our fair share of the risks?”

“When the last resort—sending in the Bundeswehr [the military]—comes to be discussed, Germany should not say no on principle,” he concluded.

Gauck’s global call to arms was reiterated at the conference in separate contributions by Germany’s new defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen (Christian Democratic Union), and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party).

Von der Leyen said: “The audience does not need to look at the program of this conference to become aware of the current crises and conflicts we are facing today: the appalling war in Syria, the gloomy situation in Libya, the deteriorating situation in some parts of our neighboring continent, Africa… To sit and wait is not an option. If we have means, we have capabilities, we have the obligation and we have the responsibility to engage.”

Steinmeier called on Germany to be “ready to engage in foreign and security policy issues earlier, more decisively, and more substantially.” He called for the elaboration of a joint European security policy in close collaboration with the United States, also calling for talks with Russia to secure Western interests in Ukraine and Iran.

Steinmeier was one of the first to greet Kerry when he landed in Germany for the conference, both men stressing their close and friendly relationship.

The main opponent addressed by all of the advocates of a renewed role for German militarism is the German population. A recent poll by the ARD “Morgenmagazin” concluded that 61 percent of the population are opposed to any increased intervention by the German army in Africa. Another survey published last Friday revealed that 45 percent believe the Bundeswehr is already doing “too much” overseas.

Serious divisions emerged at the conference over Ukraine, where Germany and the United States have taken lead roles in backing anti-government protests by the pro-European Union opposition, which is politically led by far-right elements, including the fascistic Svoboda (Freedom) party. Russian and Ukrainian officials criticized the Western policy.

While Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara complained that the opposition had not negotiated with the Ukrainian regime in good faith, Ukrainian opposition leader Vitali Klitschko accused the regime of using “terror and violence” against his supporters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also criticized US and EU claims that by supporting the opposition, they were promoting democracy. “What does incitement of violent street protests have to do with the promotion of democracy? Why do we not hear condemnation of those who seize government buildings and attack police and use racist, anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans?” he said.

Western officials bluntly dismissed these comments. Kerry claimed the fight for a democratic European future was nowhere more apparent than in Ukraine. In his remarks on Ukraine, Kerry dismissed the prominent role played by neo-fascist thugs in the recent protests in Kiev as “unsavory elements” to be found “in the streets in any chaotic situation.”

Kerry’s own speech to the conference was riddled with distortions and evasions. At one point, he boasted of the accumulation of wealth in America, claiming that, based on “marketplace” principles, “in the 1990s… every single quintile of our income earners [saw] their income go up… We created the greatest wealth the world has seen during the 1990s, greater even in America than the period of the Pierponts and the Morgans and the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Mellons, much greater.”

In another part of his speech, Kerry justified the spying activities of the National Security Agency, which have met with massive international criticism, particularly from broad layers of the German population. Declaring that democracy in America has “always been a work in progress,” Kerry defended the expansion of worldwide surveillance by the NSA under the Obama administration and applauded the government’s recent plan for a “review and revision of our signals intelligence practices…”

Ignoring the enormous growth of social inequality in America and the attacks on democratic rights carried out by his own government, Kerry announced: “We have detected a disturbing trend. Through many parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the aspirations of citizens are being trampled beneath corrupt and oligarchic interests, interests that use money to stifle political opposition and dissent, to buy politicians and media outlets.”

The hypocrisy of Kerry’s remarks is staggering. The principle role models of the oligarchs in Eastern Europe are the billionaire financiers and asset strippers on Wall Street. In the course of the past 25 years, oligarchs in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere have made their fortunes on the basis of the same “marketplace” principles Kerry defended in his speech.

In his remarks, Kerry essentially demanded that Russia agree to allow Ukraine to be brought into the sphere of influence of German imperialism, under the aegis of the US-backed European Union.

At the conference, US Defense Secretary Hagel emphasized that the “pressing security challenges to Europe and the United States are global,” including “political instability and violent extremism in the Middle East and North Africa, dangerous non-state actors, rogue nations such as North Korea, cyber warfare, demographic changes, economic disparity, poverty, and hunger.”

Hagel concluded by defending the Obama administration’s “Pacific turn,” identifying China and Russia as the main threats to the transatlantic alliance. He declared that “as we confront these threats, nations such as China and Russia are rapidly modernizing their militaries and global defense industries, challenging our technological edge in defense partnerships around the world.”

In the round of discussion following their statements, both Kerry and Hagel rejected claims that America was retreating from the world arena and declared their intention to press ahead aggressively against Syria and Iran.

Replying to a journalist’s question, Hagel said: “I have never seen a full inventory of exactly what we’re doing everywhere, but I would venture to say the United States is more present doing more things in more places today than maybe ever before.”

Edited by Steven Gaal
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SEE POSTS 1,2 and 3 above

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The Sochi Olympic Games and the Threat of a Terrorist Attack. Who is Behind the Caucasus Terrorists?

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-sochi-olympic-games-and-the-threat-of-a-terrorist-attack-who-is-behind-the-caucasus-terrorists/5367601

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In the weeks leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Western Media has released a dribble of “trustworthy reports” examining “the likelihood” of a terrorist attack at the height of the Olympic games.

In late January, the British government warned “that more terrorist attacks in Russia (following the Volgograd attack in December) are “very likely to occur before or during the Winter Olympics in Sochi”. (BBC, January 27, 2014).

As the Olympic torch reaches Sochi, CNN released, in a timely fashion, the results of an “authoritative” opinion poll (based on a meager sample of 1000 individuals): “57% of Americans think terror attack likely at Sochi Games”

Earlier news reports focussed on the mysterious menace of a so-called “Black Widow” terrorist attack emanating from Chechnya, Russia’s hotspot of Islamic terrorism. According to a so-called “catastrophe expert” Dr Gordon Woo, a Black Widow attack “is almost certain to happen”:

“Because of the history between the Russians and the Chechen people who splintered to form the Caucasus Emirate, Sochi is a prime target for terrorism,” said Woo, who has advanced insurance modelling of catastrophes, including designing a model for terrorism risk. (
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The Sochi Games are occurring at the height of a Worldwide crisis marked by the confrontation between the US and Russia on the geopolitical chessboard. In turn, the ongoing protest movement in Ukraine has a bearing on Russia’s geopolitical control of the Black Sea.

What would be the underlying political objective of a terrorist attack?

Are these slanted media reports solely intended to create an aura of fear and uncertainty which causes political embarrassment to the Russian authorities?

While network TV and the tabloids have their eyes riveted on the Black Widow, the more fundamental question as to Who is behind the Caucasus terrorists goes unmentioned.

None of the news reports has focused on the fundamental question which is required in assessing the terror threat.

Both the history of Al Qaeda as well as recent developments in Syria and Libya confirm unequivocally that the Al Qaeda network is covertly supported by Western intelligence.

History: Who is Behind the Chechen Terrorists?

What are the historical origins of the Chechen jihadists, which are now allegedly threatening the Sochi Games? Who is behind them?

In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US waged a covert war against Russia. The objective was to promote the secession of Chechnya, a “renegade autonomous region” of the Russian Federation, at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes.

basayevKHATTAB.jpg

This was a covert intelligence operation. The main Chechen rebel leaders, Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab, were trained and indoctrinated in CIA-sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The two main Chechen jihadist formations, affiliated to Al Qaeda were estimated at 35,000 strong. They were supported by Pakistan’s Military intelligence (ISI) on behalf of the CIA; funding was also channeled to Chechnya through the Wahabbi missions from Saudi Arabia.

The ISI played a key role in organizing and training the Chechnya rebel army:

“[in 1994] the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence arranged for Basayev and his trusted lieutenants to undergo intensive Islamic indoctrination and training in guerrilla warfare in the Khost province of Afghanistan at Amir Muawia camp, set up in the early 1980s by the CIA and ISI and run by famous Afghani warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In July 1994, upon graduating from Amir Muawia, Basayev was transferred to Markaz-i-Dawar camp in Pakistan to undergo training in advanced guerrilla tactics. In Pakistan, Basayev met the highest ranking Pakistani military and intelligence officers (Levon Sevunts, “Who’s Calling The Shots? Chechen conflict finds Islamic roots in Afghanistan and Pakistan”, The Gazette, Montreal, 26 October 1999.)

Following his training and indoctrination stint, Basayev was assigned to lead the assault against Russian federal troops in the first Chechen war in 1995. (Vitaly Romanov and Viktor Yadukha, “Chechen Front Moves To Kosovo”, Segodnia, Moscow, 23 Feb 2000)

The Geopolitics of the Sochi Winter Olympics

The Sochi Olympics are at a strategic location on the Black Sea at the crossroads of Russia’s oil and gas pipelines.

The forbidden question (both by the West as well as by the Russian government) in addressing the possibility of a terror attack is: Who is behind the Terrorists?

While the US sponsored Chechen rebels were defeated in the 1990s by Russian forces, various Al Qaeda affiliated formations –including the “Caucasus Emirate militant group, Imarat Kavkaz (IK) — remain active in the Southern Caucasus region of the Russian Federation (e.g. Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and Abkhazia).

Both the Russian based Al Qaeda groups as well as the broader network of jihadist formations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans constitute CIA “intelligence assets” which could potentially be used to trigger a terrorist event at the height of the Sochi Olympics.

Needless to say, Moscow is fully aware that Al Qaeda is an instrument of Western intelligence. And Moscow is also aware that the US is covertly supporting terror groups which threaten the security of the Olympic Games.

Within the Russian military and intelligence establishment, this is known, documented and discussed behind closed doors. Yet at the same time, it is a “forbidden truth”. It is taboo to talk about it in public or to raise it at the diplomatic level. Washington knows that Moscow knows: “I know you know I know”.

The more fundamental questions which both the Russian and Western media are not addressing for obvious reasons:

  • Who is behind the Caucasus terrorists?
  • What geopolitical interests would be served, were the US and its allies to decide to trigger a “False Flag” terror event before or during the Sochi Olympic Games?
Edited by Steven Gaal
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US Response to Leaked Call Confirms US/EU Regime-Change Plot in Ukraine

Global Research, February 08, 2014

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Washington’s response has confirmed the authenticity of a YouTube clip of a leaked telephone conversation between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt that emerged Thursday.

In the call, posted by an anonymous Russian source, Nuland and Pyatt discuss installing a new, pro-US government that will incorporate the fascistic opposition which has been leading street protests against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Even though Washington’s campaign for regime-change has been coordinated with the European Union (EU), and particularly with Berlin, in the phone conversation with Pyatt, Nuland attacks the EU for being insufficiently aggressive, saying at one point, “xxxx the EU.”

Asked about the leaked video, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “I didn’t say it was inauthentic.” She added that Nuland was “in contact with her EU counterparts and, of course, has apologized for these reported comments.”

Psaki also addressed Nuland’s and Pyatt’s discussion of which forces Washington would allow to come to power in Kiev. In the telephone call, the two discuss plans to install an oligarchic regime working closely with fascist gangs. They agree that boxer Vitali Klitschko, who leads the German-backed UDAR party, should stay out of power and “do his political homework and stuff.”

They conclude that Arseniy Yatsenyuk of jailed billionaire oligarch Yulia Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party should rule, conferring regularly with Oleh Tyahnybok of the fascist Svoboda Party, whose members and neo-Nazi allies provide most of the thugs fighting riot police in Kiev.

Psaki indicated that such discussions are normal for US policymakers. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that at any points there have been discussions about recent events and offers and what is happening on the ground,” she said.

US officials tried to retaliate for the exposure by blaming it on Russia. White House spokesman Jay Carney commented, “I would say that since the video was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government, I think it says something about Russia’s role.”

The implied criticism that Russian officials are bugging US communications is utterly hypocritical. US intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency carry out massive Internet and telecommunications spying directed at the entire world’s population, including heads of government and international bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations, as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has revealed.

European officials on Friday were silent or issued brief statements downplaying Nuland’s remarks. A spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christiane Wirtz, said: “The chancellor finds these remarks totally unacceptable and wants to emphasize that [EU foreign policy chief] Catherine Ashton is doing an outstanding job.”

One EU official told the BBC, “The EU is engaged in helping the people of Ukraine through the current political crisis. We don’t comment on alleged leaked telephone conversations.”

If European officials are tucking their tail between their legs and swallowing Nuland’s call to “xxxx the EU,” it is because they—like Washington—are trying to bury the entire episode, which reveals quite clearly the character of the US/EU intervention in Ukraine.

Far from “helping the people of Ukraine” to establish a democratic government, they are engaged in secret, back-channel maneuvers with far-right parties to violently impose a fascistic, pro-imperialist puppet regime on the Ukrainian people.

The Nuland-Pyatt call provides a glimpse of how Washington organizes provocations to forcibly install authoritarian regimes in strategic countries targeted for regime-change by US corporate and military interests. Their discussion recalls how US and British officials, led by the CIA, organized paid mobs of right-wing protesters in 1953 to topple the elected regime of Iranian President Mohammed Mossadegh and maintain their stranglehold on Iran’s oil fields. They then supported the bloody regime of the Iranian Shah and his sadistic SAVAK political police.

In Ukraine today, as in other countries in the past, US plans for regime-change require organization, discussion and planning. Imperialist operatives have to get on the phone to coordinate operations and funding, make sure subordinates organize the distribution of clubs, chains and Molotov cocktails to their fascist foot soldiers, and so on.

Another key element in such operations is propaganda from key figures in the media and academia, who present such filthy enterprises as noble struggles for freedom and democracy. (See: “Ukraine and the pro-imperialist intellectuals”). The media plays a key role in the campaign, maintaining a complicit silence about Victoria “xxxx the EU” Nuland’s orders to “Yats” and “Klitsch,” whom the pundits and anchormen hail as great democrats even as US officials discuss them with contempt.

There is little doubt that had this recording not surfaced, publications like theNew York Times would dismiss reports of Washington and its allies manipulating the Ukrainian opposition as “conspiracy theories.”

As for “Yats” and “Klitsch,” they are careful not to tell the raving anti-Semites and neo-Nazis fighting their street battles for them that Svoboda is intended to serve only as a tool to shift power from a more pro-Russian faction of oligarchs led by Yanukovych to a pro-EU faction led by Tymoshenko.

Due warnings must be made. Under conditions of deep economic crisis and widespread popular opposition to the bankrupt and corrupt Yanukovych regime, fascist thugs and imperialist operatives can very well, in the absence of an independent mobilization of the working class against US-led regime change, come together and overthrow the current government.

In one sign of the political agenda underlying the US/EU operation in Ukraine, Nuland has called for major changes in the Ukrainian regime in exchange for emergency US loans to fund the country’s debts. She said, “Washington is ready to support Ukraine if it will quickly move towards the path of protecting human rights, dignity, a de-escalation of the conflict, and political reforms.”

Among the “reforms” Western officials have demanded are deep cuts in energy subsidies and other social programs that will have a devastating impact on the Ukrainian working class.

====================================================

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  • 2 weeks later...
Monday, February 17, 2014
US and EU Are Paying Ukrainian Rioters and Protesters
Paul Craig Roberts

A number of confirmations have come in from readers that Washington is fueling the violent protests in Ukraine with our taxpayer dollars. Washington has no money for food stamps or to prevent home foreclosures, but it has plenty of money with which to subvert Ukraine.

One reader wrote: “My wife, who is of Ukrainian nationality, has weekly contact to her parents and friends in Zhytomyr [NW Ukraine]. According to them, most protesters get an average payment of 200-300 grivna, corresponding to about 15-25 euro. As I additionally heard, one of the most active agencies and ‘payment outlets’ on EU side is the German ‘Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’, being closely connected to the CDU, i.e. Mrs. Merkel’s party.”

As I reported on February 12, “Washington Orchestrated Protests Are Destabilizing Ukraine,” Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, a rabid Russophobe and neoconservative warmonger, told the National Press Club last December that the US has “invested” $5 billion in organizing a network to achieve US goals in Ukraine in order to give “Ukraine the future it deserves.”

Nuland is the Obama regime official who was caught red-handed naming the members of the Ukrainian government Washington intends to impose on the Ukrainian people once the paid protesters have unseated the current elected and independent government. (Source)

What Nuland means by Ukraine’s future under EU overlordship is for Ukraine to be looted like Latvia and Greece and to be used by Washington as a staging ground for US missile bases against Russia.


From the responses I received to my request for confirmations of the information sent to me from Moldova, there is enough evidence that Washington fomented the violent riots for western newspapers and TV channels to investigate. But they haven’t. As we know, the presstitutes are enablers of Washington’s crimes and duplicities. However, the US media has reported that the Ukrainian government is paying Ukrainians to rally in favor of the government.(Source)

As Karl Marx wrote, money turns everything into a commodity that is bought and sold. I wouldn’t be surprised if some protesters are working both sides of the street.

Of course, not all of the protesters are paid. There are plenty of gullible dupes in the streets who think they are protesting Ukraine government corruption. I have heard from several. There is little doubt that the Ukraine government is corrupt. What government isn’t? Government corruption is universal, but it is easy to go from the frying pan into the fire. Ukrainian protesters seem to think that they can escape corruption by joining the EU. Obviously, these gullible dupes are unfamiliar with the report on EU corruption issued February 3 by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs. The report says that a business-political nexus of corruption affects all 28 EU member countries and costs the EU economies $162.2 billion per annum. (Source) Clearly, Ukrainians will not escape corruption by joining the EU. Indeed, the corruption will be worse.

I have no objection to Ukrainians protesting government corruption. Indeed, such gullible people could benefit from the lesson they would learn once their country is in the hands of corrupt Brussels and Washington. What I object to is the lack of awareness on the part of the protesters that by permitting themselves to be manipulated by Washington, they are pushing the world toward a dangerous war. I would be surprised if Russia is content to have US military and missile bases in Ukraine.

It was fools like Nuland playing the great game that gave us World War I. World War III would be the last war. Washington’s drive to exploit every opportunity to establish its hegemony over the world is driving us all to nuclear war. Like Nuland, a significant percentage of the population of western Ukraine are Russophobes. I know the case for Ukrainian dislike of Russia, but Ukrainian emotions fueled with Washington’s money should not direct the course of history. No historians will be left to document how gullible and witless Ukrainians set the world up for destruction.

This article first appeared at Paul Craig Roberts' website Institute For Political Economy. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.
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Steven, am I right in assuming you are from the USofA?

If so, I find John Kerry a very odd person. Clearly, like most politicians, he is a hypocrite and an opportunist, but it seems to me to be almost pathological with him (perhaps that's because he is presented as more prominent at the moment, I'm sure any other alternative would present similarly) Are there reasons to consider an underlying cause other than some sort of supremacist shilling for Capital?

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Steven, am I right in assuming you are from the USofA?

If so, I find John Kerry a very odd person. Clearly, like most politicians, he is a hypocrite and an opportunist, but it seems to me to be almost pathological with him (perhaps that's because he is presented as more prominent at the moment, I'm sure any other alternative would present similarly) Are there reasons to consider an underlying cause other than some sort of supremacist shilling for Capital?

supremacist shilling for Capital? (isnt that enough ??,Gaal) The elites are upset that Syria has taken so long to fall. Im sure they have put the heat on him. That given, there may be an additional incentive given to Kerry to have him intensify his Imperial work. The elites... . may....(see below)

____________________________________________

there are numerous blackmail scenarios
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Finally, albeit late, a relatively balanced piece from a western news site:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-geopolitical-implications-of-conflict-in-ukraine-a-954724.html

Chess in a Minefield: The Global Implications of the Ukraine Conflict

By Uwe Klussmann

image-661526-breitwandaufmacher-emxu.jpg

The bloody conflict in Ukraine could trigger yet another confrontation between the West and Russia. Dominance in Europe is at stake on the geopolitical chess board. While Ukraine itself could descend into civil war.

The quote printed in SPIEGEL 33 years ago was a noteworthy one, and still sounds remarkably topical: "We have to ensure that this Soviet empire, when it breaks apart due to its internal contradictions, does so with a whimper rather than a bang." The sentence was spoken by US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger during an interview conducted in September of 1981.

This week in Ukraine, one of the core regions of that former empire, it is looking very much like a "bang." Thursday in Kiev has seen bloody violence that has cost the lives of dozens amid gunfire and brutal clashes on Independence Square. Hundreds have been wounded, many seriously. The violence comes on the heels of similar battles on Tuesday -- and mark the beginning of what could become an extended and dramatic conflict over the country's future.

Some of those who have traveled to Kiev to view the situation first hand in recent weeks are fully aware of what a "bang" looks like -- US Senator John McCain, 77, for example, a veteran of Vietnam who was shot down in 1967 and spent over two years as a prisoner of war. In December, he stood on the Independence Square stage in Kiev and called out: "People of Ukraine, this is your moment! The free world is with you! America is with you!"

In other words, the Cold War has returned and Moscow is once again the adversary. The only difference is that the weapons have changed.

It is no longer just the association agreement with the European Union that is at stake. Nor is the future of President Viktor Yanukovych, a man surrounded by rumors of corruption, the focus anymore. Rather, geopolitics has taken center stage and the question as to which power centers in Europe and the Eurasia region will be dominant in the future has become paramount. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski once compared the region to a chess board. The players, as always, include the US, Russia, the EU and NATO.

Moscow in Checkmate

It's a chess game in a minefield. Just how explosive the country called Ukraine really is became clear from a background interview given by former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar -- a liberal reformer and friendly to the West -- in 2008, one year before his death. Those wishing to make Ukraine a member of NATO, as was the intention of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, overlook the fact that it would put Russia in an untenable defensive position, he said. The effort, he added, should be abandoned.

Brzezinski would love to have put Moscow in checkmate. In his book "The Grand Chessboard," he writes that without Ukraine, Russia "would become predominantly an Asian imperial state" at risk of being drawn into conflicts in Central Asia. But if Moscow were able to gain control of Ukraine and its resources, Brzezinski wrote, the Russian Federation would be a "powerful imperial state." He saw danger in a potential "German-Russian collusion" and in the possibility of an agreement between Europe and Russia with the goal of pushing America out of the region.

Essentially, Brzezinski's point of view is one that guides American strategy to this day: The US wants to keep Russia as far away as possible. If the Europeans get involved in Ukraine and harm their relations with Moscow, that is fine with Washington.

Indeed, US Deputy Foreign Minister Victoria Nuland's infamous "xxxx the EU" gaffe, can hardly be seen as a mistake. Rather it is a logical, if somewhat vulgar, expression of America's geopolitical stance.

Weakness in the US Strategy

There's a weakness to this strategy though: In contrast to the former Baltic Soviet republics with their small populations, it would be difficult to integrate Ukraine with its 45 million residents in the same way.

The country is also deeply divided. The economically weak regions in the west are bastions of nationalists. And Ukraine's major companies, like its steel mills, ship and turbine building operations are located in the east and are focused on the Russian market.

Russian is the predominant language in daily use in the capital city of Kiev, millions of Russians live in the eastern part of the country and on the Crimea as well. The Black Sea peninsula was first transferred to Ukraine in 1954, and against the will of the people living there.

Indeed, Crimea could soon become the next hot spot in the conflict. Russia's Black Sea fleet is stationed in Sevastopol, a source of irritation for Ukrainian nationalists and friends of the United States.

At an event in Kiev in October, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt described a "myriad of opportunities" if Ukraine aligned itself with the United States and said "you have no better friend in this endeavor than the United States. … We stand ready to support you, the Ukrainian people, as you find your place in Europe."

Dangerously Sweet Promises

Sweet promises like that, which seem tantamount to blank checks, have the potential to drive one of Europe's poorest countries into civil war. It's not just a government apparatus suspected of corruption that is on the verge of faltering in Ukraine -- the foundations of a country whose current borders are hardly sustainable at this point are also being shaken. The tactics adopted so far by Yanukovych's regime of alternating between brutal strikes and the temporary retreat will only further radicalize the protest movement.

When field commanders capable of anything lay down the law, the dynamic of secession begins, as we previously saw in the Caucuses. The presidium of the Crimean Supreme Council has already threatened that it may urge residents to "defend civil peace" on the peninsula.

Thus far, the Kremlin hasn't sought to encourage separatist sentiment in eastern and southern Ukraine. And it doesn't appear that Vladimir Putin and his system of power is interested in the prospect of a civil war in his backyard.

But it still has the potential to break out even if Moscow doesn't want it. Those familiar with Ukraine's history know that the militant nationalists in the west of the country have gone time and time again into battles they can't win. After World War II, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army waged a senseless partisan war for five years against the Soviet state, leaving thousands dead on both sides.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called Ukraine a "powder keg" that one cannot allow to be lit. Whatever the case, romanticizing revolution can only end in a "big bang" -- the fallout from which would extend far beyond Ukraine.

_____

imo: It's important to recognise here the nationalist nature of this 'revolution" (better, perhaps, described as a putsch) which in this case is a reactionary right wing armed intrusion into the integrity of Ukraine. This is what the irresponsible spokesmen and women from the West have encouraged as a way for a country to change governments. It may very well become a legitimised form of 'democracy' that may very well bite people and nations in the back on a much larger scale. Tragic.

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Many in the Ukraine think they are fighting for freedom & Liberty but really they are fighting to put themselves under control of unanswerable european bureaucrats. (see below) #############################

FROM thread A new stage in the attacks on the European working class

Posted 03 February 2014 - 04:17 PM

New Model Of Governance in Bailout Europe: Silence, Lies, and Evasion

By Don Quijones, a freelance writer and translator based in Barcelona, Spain. His blog, Raging Bull-xxxx, is a modest attempt to challenge some of the wishful thinking and scrub away the lathers of soft soap peddled by our political and business leaders and their loyal mainstream media.

=====================================================================

Recent events in Spain have left me in even more a fog of confusion than usual. Here’s why: a little over a month ago, just before Christmas, it was announced to the loudest possible fanfare that Spain had finally fulfilled all its bailout obligations.

Its work done, the Troika was withdrawing its troops. After 18 long, arduous months of economic belt-tightening, Spain had finally regained its independence, its government and people liberated from the shackles of neo-colonial economic rule.

Personally speaking, I had my reservations. But even I, a seasoned skeptic, never imagined that the Troika’s shock troops would be back quite so soon. On Thursday morning, while scrolling the home page of El Diario, the following headline caught my eye:

IMF Technocrats Do Not Deign To Explain Their Reforms in Spain

The technocrats in question were two chief economists from the IMF’s European Department, Martin Schindler and Jasmin Rahmen, and two assistants from the same department, Helge Berger and Antonio Spilimbergo.

They were in Madrid for the express purpose of present their latest study, “Employment and Growth: Supporting European Recovery” — a title that proves, if nothing else, that the “Fund of Funds” hasn’t lost its sense of humour. The study contained the standard, all-familiar IMF recommendations: greater labour mobility (i.e. make it easier for companies to fire and hire workers, the former of which is definitely no longer a problem in Spain), lower salaries (always nice coming from unelected officials earning fat, tax-free, all expenses-included salaries) and, of course, less union involvement in collective bargaining agreements.

Things got interesting, however, at the end of the presentation when the small gathering of journalists began launching questions at the four IMF employees, to which Antonio Spilimbergo had one solitary response:

"We will not be taking any questions on the specifics of the Spanish situation."

And there you have it: the perfect summation of how our new technocratic system of governance functions in Europe today. A small clique of four empty suits rides into town, announces “recommendations” for economic reforms — reforms that will continue to suck the life-blood out of the Spanish economy – refuses to answer even the most innocent question on said reforms, and then rides back to wherever it came from.

In this new model of governance, difficult questions must never be asked. If they are asked, they must never be answered — for the simple reason that the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission do not have plausible answers to such questions.

Klaus Masuch, a European Central Bank official, mumbles, stumbles, and squirms his way through a steady onslaught of probing questions from a seasoned Irish journalist. At the end of his merciless interrogation, the Irish journalist says:

This isn’t good enough.
You people are intervening in this society causing huge damage while requiring us to make payments not for the benefit of anyone in Ireland but for the benefit of European financial institutions. Now could you explain why the Irish people are inflicted with its burden?

A damn good question, and one that merits an answer, but instead was met with a wall of silence, followed by all manner of evasive tactics.

Biting Austerity

Like Spain, Ireland was recently proclaimed cured. It had exited from the bailout program and, as The Guardian put it, recently made a “storming return” to the international bond market. Yet while the country may be returning to a semblance (for that is all it is) of normality in macro financial terms, the cold, hard frost of austerity continues to bite on the ground.

In October last year, Irish premier Enda Kenny announced another round of austerity cuts in the government’s (read: Troika’s) budget for 2014. Among many other things, health costs will soar, medical cards will be withdrawn from 35,000 people over 70, welfare rates will be cut for job seekers, and maternity benefits will be reduced.

The results are plainly visible for all to see. In Ireland, as in Spain, the poverty rate keeps rising, opportunity becomes a thing of the past for more and more young workers, the brain drain continues its onward march, the suicide rate is going up and public services are gradually deteriorating to the point where they no longer serve the public — cue: privatisation.

Ditto for Portugal, ditto for Italy, and the less said about the tragic fate of Greece, the better. Soon, even Europe’s core countries will be invited to join the eternal race to the bottom.

To paraphrase the Roman historian Tacitus, “They make an economic desert and call it progress.”

The markets raucously cheer and applaud from the sidelines, rewarding the respective national governments’ noble efforts to impoverish their own citizens with slightly higher bond prices, healthier-looking risk premiums and more debt — always more debt! In October, the continent’s Banking Union will be consummated, granting exclusive supervision of the continent’s banking system to unelected, unaccountable apparatchiks of the European Central Bank. And with it, another hefty chunk of our national sovereignty will disappear.

Yet if someone dares to ask any of the Troika’s three horsemen of Europe’s economic apocalypse just why such drastic steps and their brutal social, economic and political fallout are necessary — something that most representatives of the fourth estate seem strangely loath to do — you are greeted with silence, more lies, and evasion. By Don Quijones, Raging Bull-xxxx.

================o0o0o0o0o=================

At an event in Kiev in October, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt described a "myriad of opportunities" if Ukraine aligned itself with the United States and said "you have no better friend in this endeavor than the United States. … We stand ready to support you, the Ukrainian people, as you find your place in Europe." QUOTE YOUR ARTICLE

========

THE PLACE THE USA WANTS THE UKARAINIAN PEOPLE IS AS SLAVES TO THE EU CENTRAL BANKING SYSTEM.

PERIOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited by Steven Gaal
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Senator John McCain En Route To Ukraine To Hasten “Regime Change”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/senator-john-mccain-en-route-to-ukraine-to-hasten-regime-change/5361594

US Senator John McCain will travel to Ukraine over the weekend, a trip that will make him the highest-ranking US official to visit the ex-Soviet republic since protests erupted there last month over Kiev’s move to tighten ties with Moscow, a US website reported Friday.

“Senator McCain is traveling to Ukraine to meet with government officials, opposition leaders and civil society at this critical time as Ukrainians struggle for their future,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told The Daily Beast.

McCain, a veteran Republican lawmaker and vociferous Kremlin critic, was set to leave for Kiev on Friday evening and remain in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday and Sunday, according to the report. He will be joined there Sunday by Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, according to The Daily Beast.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

American Conquest by Subversion: Victoria Nuland Admits Washington Has Spent $5 Billion to “Subvert Ukraine”

http://www.blacklistednews.com/American_Conquest_by_Subversion%3A_Victoria_Nuland_Admits_Washington_Has_Spent_%245_Billion_to_%E2%80%9CSubvert_Ukraine%E2%80%9D/33136/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Proof of what many of us suspected all along (after all, US meddling in the region has historical form). Global Research explains:

“After three visits to Ukraine in five weeks, Victoria Nuland explains that in the past two decades, the United States has spent five Billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) to subvert Ukraine, and assures her listeners that there are prominent businessmen and government officials who support the US project to tear Ukraine away from its historic relationship with Russia and into the US sphere of interest (via “Europe”).

#######################################

Edited by Steven Gaal
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The Geopolitical Dimensions of the Coup in Ukraine – A Struggle for Power and Influence

http://rinf.com/alt-news/business-news/geopolitical-dimensions-coup-ukraine-struggle-power-influence/

============================================

“When the Soviet Union was collapsing in late 1991, Dick wanted to see the dismantlement not only of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire but of Russia itself, so it could never again be a threat to the rest of the world,” wrote former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his recently published memoirs. Gates was referring to the then-Secretary of Defense, and later US Vice President, Dick Cheney.

The statement sheds light on the geopolitical dimensions of the recent putsch in Ukraine. What is at stake is not so much domestic issues—and not at all the fight against corruption and democracy—but rather an international struggle for power and influence that stretches back a quarter of a century.

The Financial Times places the recent events in Ukraine in the same light. In an editorial on February 23, it wrote: “For a quarter of a century this huge territory perched precariously between the EU and Russia has been the object of a geopolitical contest between the Kremlin and the west.” In 2008, a clumsy attempt by President George W. Bush failed to draw the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, “But the Maidan revolution now offers a second chance for all parties to reconsider the status of Ukraine on the fault line of Europe.”

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 was an unexpected gift to the imperialist powers. The October Revolution in 1917 had removed a considerable part of the world’s surface from the sphere of capitalist exploitation. This was regarded as a threat by the international bourgeoisie, even long after the Stalinist bureaucracy betrayed the goal of world socialist revolution and murdered an entire generation of Marxist revolutionaries. In addition, the economic and military strength of the Soviet Union presented an obstacle to US world hegemony.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the introduction of the capitalist market created conditions for the social wealth created by generations of workers to be plundered by a handful of oligarchs and international finance. The social gains made in the field of education, health care, culture and infrastructure were smashed and left to decline.

This was not enough, however, for the US and the major European powers. They were intent on ensuring that Russia could never again threaten their global hegemony, as is made clear in the above cited statement of Dick Cheney.

By 2009 the US-dominated NATO military alliance had absorbed into its ranks almost all of the East European countries that had once belonged to the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. But attempts to incorporate former Soviet republics into NATO failed—with the exception of the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—due to resistance from Moscow. Ukraine, with its 46 million inhabitants and its strategic location situated between Russia, Europe, the Black Sea and the Caucasus, invariably was at the centre of these attempts.

As far back as 1997, former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that without Ukraine, any attempt by Moscow to rebuild its influence on the territory of the former Soviet Union was doomed to fail. The core thesis of his book The Grand Chessboard is that America’s capacity to exercise global primacy depends on whether America can prevent the emergence of a dominant and antagonistic power on the Eurasian landmass. (See: “The power struggle in Ukraine and America’s strategy of domination”)

In 2004 the US and the European powers supported and financed the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine that brought a pro-western government to power. The regime rapidly broke apart, however, due to internal strife. The attempt in 2008 to draw Georgia into NATO by provoking a military confrontation with Russia also failed.

Now the US and its European allies are intent to use the putsch in Ukraine to once again destabilize other former Soviet republics as well and draw them into their own sphere of influence. In so doing they risk an open armed conflict with Russia.

Under the headline “After Ukraine, the West Makes Its Move for the Russian Periphery,” the Stratfor think tank, which has close links to the US secret services, writes: “The West wants to parlay the success of supporting Ukraine’s anti-government protesters into a broader, region-wide campaign.”

“A Georgian delegation is currently visiting Washington, and the country’s prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry this week,” Stratfor reports. Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca is also scheduled to visit the White House for a meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden on March 3. “High on the agenda of both visits are the countries’ prospects for Western integration—in other words, how to bring them closer to the United States and the European Union and further from Russia.”

Lilia Shetsova from the US foundation Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (sic) in Moscow, also argues that the coup in Ukraine be extended to other countries and Russia itself. “Ukraine has become the weakest link in the post-Soviet chain,” she writes in a comment for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We should keep in mind that similar upheavals in other countries are possible.”

Shetsova stresses a feature of the Ukrainian revolution that she wants to retain at all costs: the mobilization of militant fascist forces. “Yanukovych’s downfall is essentially due to the ‘radical elements’ on the Maidan, including among others, the Right Sector, which have become a serious political force.” She continues: “Ukraine’s future will depend on whether the Ukrainians can maintain the Maidan.”

The “radical elements” which Shetsova wants to retain at all costs are armed fascist militias, which base themselves on the vilest traditions of Ukrainian history: the pogroms and mass murder of Jews and Communists carried out during the Second World War. The future role of these fascist militias will be to terrorize and intimidate the working class.

It took just a few hours for the reactionary social content of the upheaval in Ukraine to become clear. The “European values ” allegedly brought to the country by overthrow of the old regime consist of massive attacks on the already impoverished working class. As a condition for loans the country urgently needs to prevent impending bankruptcy, the IMF is demanding the floating of the exchange rate of the hryvna, a brutal austerity program and a six-fold increase in the price of household gas prices.

The floating of the country’s currency will lead to raging inflation, a corresponding increase in the cost of living, and the destruction of any remaining savings by ordinary Ukrainians. The austerity program will be primarily directed against pensions and social spending and the increase in gas prices will mean that many families cannot heat their homes.

Ukraine is to be reduced to a country where well-trained workers and professionals earn wages far below those currently paid in China. This is of especial interest for Germany, Ukraine’s second largest trading partner (after Russia) and, with a volume of $7.4 billion, the second largest investor in the country.

While for the United States the isolation of Russia stands in the foreground, Germany is interested in the economic benefits of Ukraine, which it has already militarily occupied twice, in 1918 and 1941. It wants to exploit the country as a cheap labor platform and use it to drive down wages in Eastern Europe and Germany even further.

According to statistics compiled by the German Economic Institute, labor costs in Ukraine are at the low end of the international scale. At €2.50 per hour worked, average labor costs (gross wages plus other costs) for workers and clerical employees are already well below those of China (€3.17), Poland (€6.46) and Spain (€21.88). In Germany, an hour of labor costs €35.66, i.e 14 times as much.

The Ukrainian Statistical Office estimates the average monthly wage at 3,073 hryvna (€220). Academics are also very poorly paid.

Former President Yanukovych himself was a representative of Ukrainian oligarchs. He only turned down the Association Agreement with the EU because he feared he would not politically survive the social consequences. Now his downfall serves as a pretext to introduce a level of poverty and exploitation totally incompatible with democratic norms and will lead to new social uprisings. It is precisely in order to suppress future social unrest that the fascist militias are to be retained.

Peter Schwarz is a writer for WSWS.

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This article make a lot of very good points. I've been impressed with a lot on their site in the past.

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late headsup : go to RU today to see news conference with the president of ukraine from southern russia.

at 13:00 gmt

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