US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine

[Steven Gaal]

Mar 01 08:38

Anonymous operations expose Ukrainian Bandera nazis (LINK)

Anonymous Ukraine released an e-mail between Tarasenko and the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Aslan Omer Qirimli in which he asks for more powerful weapons, information on the location weapons caches in Kerch, Feodosia, Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta. The e-mail released by Anonymous Ukraine is dated January 28, 2014 so its operational value is questionable but it does show the true nature of the “peaceful demonstrators” on the Maidan and in Ukraine. Anonymous Ukraine has also hacked the e-mails of NATO offices and bodies in Ukraine and those of several US officials operating in Ukraine with more releases soon to appear on the internet, according to sources in Anonymous.

»

Edited March 1, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

There seems to be a lot that the wests propaganda machine does not mention. What worries me the most is that the leaders of the west who support this putsch and refuse to acknowledge the essential far right nature of the violent intrusion of this dogma into the political environment yet must know so and in knowing and supporting such is repeating history. The attention is not where it should be by these leaders and their foreign ministers. Their response drips with hypocrisy.

[John Dolva]

Crimean Speaker just finished a news conference. Very good (imo)

____________________

BBC: (sometimes the right emphasis does slip through :

11:08:

Journalist Brian Whelan, who specialises in reporting on Europe's far-right, tweets:

Who is in charge of defence in post-revolution Ukraine? Andriy Parubiy of far-right Svoboda party and Dmytro Yarosh of Right Sector (nazis)

[John Dolva]

The situation is not as presented by the western media. Fascist gangs will always be the shock troops of capital. The west continues to legitimise a form of governemt change that is perilous. There has been no general strike. Working people in ukraine are suffering already and the west wants them through the binds of IMF finance infusion to suffer more for the enrichment of the few.

To provoke a very rational response to the situation in the crimean autonomous republic by russia and to then condemn it in the face of all the war crimes the west has perpetrated, economic and military and social, and unashamedly continue to legitimise FASCISM is contemptible.

____________________

From Kabul to Kiev, American meddling wreaking havoc

Robert Bridge has worked as a journalist in Russia since 1998. Formerly the editor-in-chief of The Moscow News, Bridge is the author of the book, “Midnight in the American Empire.”

Get short URL

Published time: March 02, 2014 15:45

A handout picture released on December 10, 2013 by Ukrainian Union Opposition press services shows US Assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland ® distributing cakes to riot policemen on the Independence Square in Kiev on December 10, 2013. (AFP Photo)

With hypocrisy befitting a hyper power, US President Obama expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s decision to send troops into Crimea, calling it a “violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. . . and breach of international law.”

In a 90-minute conversation described as tense, Obama and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, exchanged views on the crisis in Ukraine, where the country’s legitimate leader, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted from power by violent street protests.

Obama reportedly warned Putin that Russia’s refusal to order the Russian soldiers back to their bases would result in the United States sitting on the sidelines of the upcoming G8 summit in Sochi, Russia, scheduled for June, as well as “greater political and economic isolation.”

Putin won parliamentary approval from the Senate over the weekend to dispatch military forces to the Crimean Peninsula. In defending his position, Putin drew attention to “ultra-nationalist elements” working alongside the opposition, which are being “encouraged by the current authorities in Kiev.”

The Russian leader emphasized that in the event of further violence in the eastern regions of Ukraine and Crimea, "Russia reserves the right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population.”

Although Obama’s talk tough was little more than tossing raw meat to the hawks in the Republican Party, diseased beyond recognition by Neo-Con ideology, his comments nevertheless betrayed a breathless amount of hypocrisy.

After all, Washington wrote the book on violating the territorial integrity of sovereign states with its 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was wrongly accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction. Urgent pleas on the part of UN weapons inspectors, not to mention worldwide anti-war protests, fell on deaf ears in Washington as intelligence-challenged leaders dropped smart bombs on Baghdad.

Blamed on a case of “bad intelligence” – oops! – hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed over the past decade, while the country remains a basket case of ongoing sectarian violence and regular suicide bombings: a phenomenon completely unknown to Iraqis when the dictator Saddam Hussein was in charge.

Washington’s war-on-terror train continued chugging along its iron track, even after the Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama relieved Bush of his imperial command.

Today, Obama’s “hope and change” campaign promises notwithstanding, Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Amnesty International has dubbed, “the GULAG of our times,” remains open for business, while Washington’s drone diplomacy continues to destroy America’s image in faraway places like Yemen and Pakistan.

But even the US’s closest allies are sick and tired of the extra-judicial wave of serial killings. Just last month, the European Parliament voted by a majority of 534 to 49 MEPs to support a resolution that says “EU member states should strictly refrain from participating in or facilitating extrajudicial targeted killings, for instance by sharing relevant information with countries such as the US."

Finally, during the Libyan civil war of 2011, US-led NATO forces worked on the side of the rebels, many of whom were known radical Islamists, to hunt down Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan leader was eventually killed at the hands of a lynch mob. So much for planting the seeds of democracy.

As much as Washington may try to paint Moscow’s actions in Crimea as some sort of brazen military expedition, Russia’s actions in Ukraine cannot be placed in the same category as Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, for example, where US-led military operations in those hotspots have led to disastrous outcomes.

Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement that gives Russia’s Black Sea Fleet basing rights in Crimea until 2042, so to call the deployment of troops to Ukraine a “Russian invasion” – as some Western media are branding it - is clearly wide of the mark. Protecting the lives of Russian citizens at a time when Kiev is clearly not capable of securing the peace is no invasion.

Russia’s large ethnic community in Crimea has reacted with alarm to last month’s violent street protests, fueled by a Western-backed opposition movement made up of an unpredictable blend of ultra-nationalists and, some believe, even worse.

Uncertainty over the political disposition of the Ukrainian opposition provoked a warning from Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, who last month called on Kiev's Jews to leave the Ukrainian capital and even the country if possible, Israeli daily Maariv reported.

"I told my congregation to leave the city center or the city all together and if possible the country too," Rabbi Azman told Maariv. "I don't want to tempt fate," he added, "but there are constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions."

For some readers, all this may sound disturbingly familiar. In countries where Western governments are working to prop up opposition movements to advance their geopolitical ambitions – the spread of NATO forces eastward not least among them – the world is witnessing the outgrowth of potentially dangerous political forces.

The heedless rush to play power politics for nothing more than geopolitical advantage was exemplified by State Department official Victoria Nuland’s taped conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, where her colorful choice of language was not the most shocking thing.

"That would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN glue it and you know, f**k the EU," she said.

"We've got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it," Pyatt replied.

The most disturbing part of the talk, however, was when Nuland suggested that Klitschko, the former boxing champ turned leader of the pro-European ‘Punch’ party, is not destined for a long political career in Washington’s view.

"I don't think Klitsch should go into the government," she reportedly said.

This tendency of Washington playing God in the affairs of sovereign states, revealed by Nuland's comment, has proven itself to be a destabilizing factor from Kabul to Kiev.

Robert Bridge is the author of the book, Midnight in the American Empire, which discusses the dangerous consequences of extreme corporate power in the United States.

It is available in PDF form here.

[Douglas Caddy]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/28/obamas-dumbest-plan-yet/

[Steven Gaal]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/28/obamas-dumbest-plan-yet/

Very good article ,but the authors missed an important point... they say

The US has gone off the rails, stark raving mad. The architecture for global security has collapsed while the basic principals of international law have been jettisoned. The rampaging US juggernaut lurches from one violent confrontation to the next without rhyme or reason, destroying everything in its path, forcing millions to flee their own countries, and pushing the world closer to the abyss. Isn’t that reason enough to be concerned?

++++++++

HOWEVER to the ultra elites order comes out of chaos. Multiple contingencies Im sure were taken account of in the Ukraine action for the ultimate goal of Anglo-American world hegemony and dominance.

"next without rhyme or reason, destroying everything in its path," SO ?? DONT you remember the total eventual leaked info on the Trillions in secret accounts ?? 23 Total and of that 9 trillions to known individuals. Whats doing with that left over 14 or so Trillions money ?? Plenty left to bribe or pay guns for thugs to take out countries one by one till the goal is achieved. This austarity game world wide keeps the inflation down as these TRILLIONS (mostly made out of nothing and then money is laundered via futures accounts) are spent to control the world. Many millionaires/billionaires can be created via seed money from this fiat-trillions monies. (and are loyal to their Globalist "seed giver")

"What a wonderful billionaire philanthropist we have here helping this poor (mineral rich) country."

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

Rule by oligarchs: Kiev appoints billionaires to govern east

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-oligarch-rule-governors-512/ (LINK)

Edited March 4, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

Putin gave a very credible news conference last night.

_________________________

Interestingly ther focus is beginning to change away from the pro nazi stance of the us and its allies. Many people in the west do understand what this is really about. Fact and Opinion:

Swedish Aftonbladet:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article18480007.ab

Startsidan / Debatt 2014-03-04

"Nazisterna styr redan i Ukraina"

Att väst tystar ner att det sitter nazister i Ukrainas regering kan få allvarliga konsekvenser, menar den fd radiokorrespondenten Vladislav Savic.

– Nazisterna styr redan Galizien, det som händer oroar mig, säger han i kvällens "20 minuter"

I kvällens sändning av Aftonbladets nya tv-satsning "20 minuter" debatterades frågan om väst svartmålar Ryssland och varför man inte rapporterar om att nazister sitter på fyra ministerposter Ukrainas nya regering.

Enligt Vladislav Savic finns det anledning att oroa sig för att nazisterna har makt i Ukraina.

– Nazismen har redan slagit rot i Ukraina, de styr redan i Galizien. Dessa nazister hyllar de gamla nazisterna och SS, sa han.

Enligt hans motdebattör, ukrainaren och kristdemokraten Mario Shevchenko så har de nazistiska elementen under upproret varit i och är i minoritet i Ukraina.

– Fram till den 25 maj när det är nyval kommer de inte att kunna ha någon makt. De strävar inte efter att minska Rysslands status, vilket ju var det som Putin var rädd för, sa han.

”Jag är orolig för det här”

Han menar också att det inte är samma sak att lockas av nationalismen i Ukraina som i Sverige, eftersom vi inte har varit i krig på 200 år.

– Det är naturligt där, sa han.

Enligt Vladislav Savic är Shevchenkos resonemang ett förminska den nazistiska rörelsen i landet.

– De är fjärde största partiet. Tänk om det blir ett delat Ukraina där det nazistiska Galizien ingår. Och snart är det EU-val och vi har redan sett varningar om alla högerextrema partier i Europa som vill in, jag är orolig för det här, sa han.

”Ger inte alls en skev bild”

Att väst med USA i spetsen tonar ner det här hotet för att de har egna intressen i konflikten tycker han är uppenbart.

– Vad hände till exempel med det här samtalet mellan de amerikanska diplomaterna där de nämnde oppositionspolitiker de inte ville skulle vara med och bilda regering. Det försvann bara. Men se nu. Nu är har de fått som de vill, sa Savic.

Mario Shevchenko hävdade tvärtom att medierna inte alls ger en skev bild av händelseutvecklingen i Ukraina.

– Det pratas om fascisterna och nazisterna i Ukraina hela tiden. Och jag håller inte med om att EU har varit med och tryckt på den här revolutionen, sa han.

__________________

translator: http://www.translation-guide.com/free_online_translators.php?from=English&to=Swedish

[John Dolva]

Breaking:

Published on 5 Mar 2014

Officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to the ousted President Viktor Yanukovich have hacked phones of Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and leaked their conversation to the web. The officials discuss their impressions of what's happening in the country after the revolution. The gist of it is that Ukrainian people have no trust in any of the leaders of Maidan.
However the most striking thing of all is the fact which concerns the use of force during the revolution, particularly the snipers who killed both protesters and officers of the riot police. Mr. Paet reveals astonishing information which confirms the rumours that the snipers were employed by the leaders of Maidan.

[John Dolva]

The above has been confirmed as genuine by Estonia.

[John Dolva]

US Administration Directly Supports Neo-Nazis in Ukraine and its Parliament

UkraineUSA

nsnbc : Claims that there are no Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine and the Ukrainian parliament, and that the USA does not support Fascists, have been rebutted at numerous occasions. Last weekend, when the US, French, British, Polish and German – backed “opposition” seized Parliament with masked gunmen and voted 360 – 0 to oust the President, the White House responded by releasing a statement that praised the “constructive work” done by the Ukrainian parliament. Does the USA support Neo-Nazis?

In an editorial, the Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, points out that Svoboda, a Neo-Nazi party, is the fourth biggest party in the Ukraine, holding 36 seats out of 450 in parliament.

Svoboda is also part of the Alliance of European National Movements, along with the BNP and Jobbik, states Chossudovsky, adding that Svoboda is directly supported by Washington. Chossudovsky published a photo of Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnbok, doing the Svoboda party salute when he was reelected as their “leader”.

The Ukrainian parliament in Kiev is at the present time solely dominated by the UDAR party of former heavy-weight boxer Vitaly Klitchko, the Batkivshchyna party of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and the ultra nationalist Svoboda party, led by Oleg Tyagnibok. It is, however,the ultra nationalist and racist Svoboda party, that honors former Ukrainian SS Brigades as “Liberators”, that controls the military part of the coup d’état.

The fact that Svoboda is a Fascist, Neo-Nazi and racist party was pointed out already in December, when the Russian analyst and consultant, Igor Alexeev, published an article about the economic background for the European Union’s “interest” in the Ukraine and warned, that Svoboda is rooted in Nazi collaboration. Alexeev wrote:

Svoboda also honors “Ukrainian veterans” who fought with the Nazis against the Soviet Union during the Second World War in the

Waffen SS-Galicia

and the party is fighting against a threat which they describe as “Jew Communism.” The issue has been described in an article by Michael Goldfarb in the Global Post, titled

“Ukraine’s nationalist party embraces Nazi ideology”

.

The situation on the ground is not as simple as pro-EU and trade versus pro-Putin and Russian hegemony in the region.”, states Chossudovsky. Photo, Red Phoenix.

Regardless the fact that the character of Svoboda has been openly published and well known, both the USA and core EU member states embrace the party, denying that they support Neo-Nazis or Fascists.

Chossudovsky underlines the point in his editorial, with a photo of the Chairman of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain, together with Svoboda “leader” Tyahnbok, who not long before his meeting with McCain appeared on national television, brandishing an ax, saying that a party like Svoboda needs a war to to flourish.

Chossudovsky, Lehmann and other analysts who have followed the situation in the Ukraine closely, repeatedly pointed out that the west supports Neo-Nazis and fascists in the Ukraine as vanguard, as Chossudovsky puts it, or as storm troopers, as Lehmann puts it, for the “opposition”, while marketing the violence, as protests for freedom and democracy.

Lehmann stressed, that the modus operandi used by the USA, France, the UK and the USA has been virtually identical from the subversion of former Yugoslavia, over Libya and Syria to the Ukraine with the only difference being that it is not radical Islamists but radical Fascists which are being used in the Ukraine. In the case of Yugoslavia, it was, in fact, both Neo-Nazis and radical Islamists. Lehmann points out that the testimony of the retired French Brig. Gen. Pierre Marie Galois is key to understanding the modus operandi and the relation between Neo-Nazis, Fascists and Islamist Terrorists.

The testimony of ret. Brig. General Pierre Marie Galois, and his statement “we planned the fall of Yugoslavia in a farmhouse near Munich since the mid-1970s” can be watched HERE.

Reunion of SS and UPA Nazi collaborators and their supporters in 2006 in the Ukraine.

Neo-Nazi and Fascist organizations in the Ukraine have existed, in small numbers, since the end of the Second World War. Underground SS survivor organizations, residual elements of the nationalist OUN which arose after the First World War have existed in the Ukraine, in small numbers ever since. None of them, however, would have had the strength to develop into a political force, and an armed and uniformed force that would have been strong enough to take over a parliament in a central European capital without support from intelligence services, without money, and without political cover.

It is noteworthy that retired French Brigadier General Galois stressed that the subversion of Yugoslavia was Germany’s revenge against the Serbs for its losses in WW II and that Germany was about to reset the map to pre-world war two conditions in cooperation with the EU, France, Britain and the USA.

Is Germany supporting Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine? Are France and the UK supporting the project? Is the USA supporting Neo-Nazis and Fascists in the Ukraine for its own, geopolitical reasons as pivot against Russia?

“Unanimous votes” in Ukraine’s “Parliament”.

After the parliament of the Ukraine, on Saturday, announced that it had adopted to remove President Yanukovich from his post with 380 – 0 votes, the Washington Post reported that the White House released a statement that praised the “constructive work” done by the Ukrainian parliament and urged “the prompt formation of a broad, technocratic government of national unity.”

The fact that the government is occupied by masked gunmen was omitted in the name of “Freedom and Democracy – Washington Style”.

[Evan Burton]

An American news anchor for television station Russia Today has announced her resignation during a live broadcast, saying that she cannot be part of an organisation "funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin".

The dramatic resignation of Liz Wahl, who is based in the Washington bureau of the Kremlin-funded channel, comes just a day after it was revealed another Russia Today anchor would be sent by the broadcaster to Crimea to "better her knowledge" after she spoke out against what she called Russia's military invasion in Ukraine.

In a live broadcast on Wednesday, US time, Wahl began by referring to the controversial stance taken by her colleague, Abby Martin, also based in Washington, who had shocked mostly pro-Russian viewers earlier in the week by announcing that "Russia was wrong" in sending its troops to Crimea

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-anchor-for-russia-today-quits-over-crimea-invasion-20140306-hvgea.html#ixzz2vArOa55Q

[John Dolva]

countered by :

Dispatches

RT Host Abby Martin Condemns Russian Incursion Into Crimea – On RT

By Glenn Greenwald 04 Mar 2014

568

The vast bulk of the commentary issuing from American commentators about the Russian military action in Ukraine involves condemning exactly that which they routinely advocate and which the U.S. itself routinely does. Read more

and totally overshadowed by :

Breaking News :

Crimean parliament votes to join Russia, hold referendum in 10 days on ratifying Published time: March 06, 2014 09:29
Edited time: March 06, 2014 10:31

Get short URL

There will be two questions on the ballots.

“The first one:

Are you in favor of Crimea becoming a constituent territory of the Russian Federation.

The second one:

Are you in favor of restoring Crimea’s 1992 constitution,” Temirgaliev said.

According to the 1992 constitution, the autonomous republic is part of Ukraine but has relations with Kiev, defined on the basis of mutual agreements.

____________________

I find it very interesting that western mainstream media chooses to pointedly ignore the role of fascists in the self appointed Ukranian parliament. There is a bit of a spat about Carl Bildt likening Yanko.. with Quisling with a number of commentators including scholars pointing out how wrong he is. His retort "I call a spade a spade" indicating he understood nothing or simply bullishly continues to push a line that a number of people in sweden (and elsewhere) recognise as being fundamentally wrong and see him and his governement as a lapdog of the US. To my mind the world has lost a great resource : Swedish Neutrality. However the Norwegian scholar who took him to task perhaps points at a reason in saying that it is not in the interest of open dialogue to talk about nazis in this context. It won't make them go away though. People need to know that a broad dialogue with the self appointed government in Kiev has serious Fascist components which is precisely why many eastern Ukranians are not with Kiev and I'm sure that many caught up in events in the west fundamentally want nothing to do with fascists either.

__________

edit typos

Edited March 6, 2014 by John Dolva

[Steven Gaal]

This is a must see! Ukraine. Bercut captures American agent, consultant unrest

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f48_1392931092

[Steven Gaal]

An American news anchor for television station Russia Today has announced her resignation during a live broadcast, saying that she cannot be part of an organisation "funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin".

The dramatic resignation of Liz Wahl, who is based in the Washington bureau of the Kremlin-funded channel, comes just a day after it was revealed another Russia Today anchor would be sent by the broadcaster to Crimea to "better her knowledge" after she spoke out against what she called Russia's military invasion in Ukraine.

In a live broadcast on Wednesday, US time, Wahl began by referring to the controversial stance taken by her colleague, Abby Martin, also based in Washington, who had shocked mostly pro-Russian viewers earlier in the week by announcing that "Russia was wrong" in sending its troops to Crimea

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-anchor-for-russia-today-quits-over-crimea-invasion-20140306-hvgea.html#ixzz2vArOa55Q

Why are Nazi and Confederate flags on display in Kiev?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-are-nazi-and-confederate-flags-on-display-in-kiev/5372042

+++++++++++++++++

Ukraine and the “Politics of Anti-Semitism”: The West Upholds Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine’s Jewish Community

http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-politics-of-anti-semitism-west-upholds-neo-nazi-repression-of-ukraines-jewish-community/5370790

++++++++++++++++++

globalresearch

The Big Picture: The U.S. and NATO Have Been Trying to Encircle Russia Militarily Since 1991

The American press portrays Putin as being the bad guy and the aggressor in the Ukraine crisis.

Putin is certainly no saint. A former KGB agent, Putin’s net worth is estimated at some $40 billion dollars … as he has squeezed money out of the Russian economy by treating the country as his own personal fiefdom. And all sides appear to have dirt on their hands in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

But we can only see the bigger picture if we take a step back and gain a little understanding of the history underlying the current tensions.

Indeed, the fact that the U.S. has allegedly paid billions of dollars to anti-Russian forces in Ukraine – and even purportedly picked the Ukrainian president – has to be seen in context.

Veteran New York Times reporter Steven Kinzer notes at the Boston Globe:

Stephen Cohen – professor emeritus at New York University and Princeton University who has long focused on Russia – explained this weekend on CNN:

From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States has relentlessly pursued a strategy of encircling Russia, just as it has with other perceived enemies like China and Iran. [background here, here and here.] It has brought 12 countries in central Europe, all of them formerly allied with Moscow, into the NATO alliance. US military power is now directly on Russia’s borders.

“I think it is the beginning of a new cold war,” warned George Kennan, the renowned diplomat and Russia-watcher, as NATO began expanding eastward. “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely, and it will affect their policies.”

We are witnessing as we talk the making possibly of the worst history of our lifetime. We are watching the descending of a new cold war divide between west and east, only this time, it is not in far away Berlin, it’s right on Russia’s borders through the historical civilization in Ukraine. It’s a crisis of historic magnitude. If you ask how we got in it, how we got into the crisis, and how therefore do we get out, it is time to stop asking why Putin – why Putin is doing this or that, but ask about the American policy, and the European Union policy that led to this moment.

***

Jonathan Steele writes at the Guardian

I don’t know if you your listeners or views remember George Kennan. He was considered [a] great strategic thinker about Russia among American diplomats but he warned when we expanded NATO [under Bill Clinton], that this was the most fateful mistake of American foreign policy and that it would lead to a new Cold War. George lived to his hundreds, died a few years ago, but his truth goes marching on. The decision to move NATO beginning in the 90′s continuing under Bush and continuing under Obama, is right now on Russia’s borders.

And if you want to know for sure, and I have spent a lot of time in Moscow, if you want to know what the Russian power elite thinks Ukraine is about, it is about bringing it into NATO. One last point, that so-called economic partnership that Yanukovych, the elected president of Ukraine did not sign, and that set off the streets – the protests in the streets in November, which led to this violence in and confrontation today, that so-called economic agreement included military clauses which said that Ukraine by signing this so called civilization agreement had to abide by NATO military policy. This is what this is about from the Russian point of view, the ongoing western march towards post Soviet Russia.

Both

John Kerry’s threats to expel Russia from the G8

and the Ukrainian government’s plea for Nato aid mark a dangerous escalation of a crisis that can easily be contained if cool heads prevail. Hysteria seems to be the mood in Washington and Kiev, with the new Ukrainian prime minister claiming, “We are on the brink of disaster” as he calls up army reserves in response to

Russian military movements in Crimea

.

Were he talking about the country’s economic plight he would have a point. Instead, along with much of the US and European media, he was over-dramatising developments in the east, where Russian speakers are understandably alarmed after the new Kiev authorities scrapped a law allowing Russian as an official language in their areas. They see it as proof that the anti-Russian ultra-nationalists from western Ukraine who were the dominant force in last month’s insurrection still control it. Eastern Ukrainians fear similar tactics of storming public buildings could be used against their elected officials.

Kerry’s rush to punish Russia and Nato’s decision to respond to Kiev’s call by holding a meeting of member states’ ambassadors in Brussels today were mistakes. Ukraine is not part of the alliance, so none of the obligations of common defence come into play.

Nato should refrain from interfering in Ukraine by word or deed. The fact that it insists on getting engaged reveals the elephant in the room: underlying the crisis in Crimea and Russia’s fierce resistance to potential changes is Nato’s undisguised ambition to continue two decades of expansion into what used to be called “post-Soviet space”, led by Bill Clinton and taken up by successive administrations in Washington. At the back of Pentagon minds, no doubt, is the dream that a US navy will one day replace the Russian Black Sea fleet in the Crimean ports of Sevastopol and Balaclava.

***

Vladimir Putin’s troop movements in Crimea, which are supported by most Russians, are of questionable legality under the terms of the peace and friendship treaty that Russia signed with Ukraine in 1997. But

their illegality is considerably less clear-cut than that of the US-led invasion of Iraq, or of Afghanistan

, where the UN security council only authorised the intervention several weeks after it had happened. [indeed, top American leaders

admit

that the Iraq war was for reasons different than publicly stated. And the U.S. military sticks its nose in other countries' business

all over the world

. And

see this

.] And Russia’s troop movements can be reversed if the crisis abates. That would require the restoration of the language law in eastern Ukraine and firm action to prevent armed groups of anti-Russian nationalists threatening public buildings there.

Again, we don’t believe that there are angels on any side. But we do believe that everyone has to take a step back, look at the bigger picture, calm down and reach a negotiated diplomatic resolution.

And see this, this, this and this (interview with a 27-year CIA veteran, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Edited March 6, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

Crimea Denounces Ukraine Threats, Seeks Unification with Russia

Moscow, Mar 6.- In another challenge to those who overthrew Ukrainian Constitutional President Viktor Yanukovich, the Supreme Council of the autonomous republic of Crimea voted unanimously on Thursday to join the Russian Federation.

All 78 lawmakers attending the session supported sending a communiqué to President Vladimir Putin and Russia's two parliamentary houses to propose unification, the press service of the Crimean Parliament confirmed.

According to Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev, the lawmakers also unanimously supported the holding of a referendum on the peninsula's status on March 16 instead of March 30, as originally announced.

Voters will be asked to choose between two propositions. The first refers to unification with Russia and rights as a subject of the Russian Federation, noted the source.

The second is whether to reestablish the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Crimea with its status as a part of Ukraine, said the document published by local media.

The text makes it clear that the proposition which achieve the majority vote will be considered the expression of the Crimean people's will.

The ballots will be printed in Russian, Ukrainian and the language of Crimea's Tartars, it was reported.

Meantime, Ukrainian media reported that the U.S. nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS H.W. Bush is approaching the Black Sea, in addition to another U.S. warship authorized by Turkey on Wednesday to cross the Strait of Bosphorus in the same direction.

Washington also dispatched six bombers to the territory of the former Soviet republics in the Baltic Sea, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel announced an increase in military activities in Eastern Europe in the next few days.

On Wednesday, the Military District of Western Russia started the largest anti-aircraft defense maneuvers in recent years in the Kapustin Yar polygon, near Astrakhan, in the south-central part of the country, Colonel Oleg Kochetkov confirmed.

The Russian Foreign Ministry repeated Moscow's stance that the Ukrainian opposition must comply with the agreement signed on February 21.

On the other hand, the Russian state Duma (lower house) will investigate evidence that Ukrainian snipers were hired by the violent opposition that took over power and overthrew President Yanukovich during the demonstrations in Kiev. (Prensa Latina)