US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine

[John Dolva]

KIEV, April 17, /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s South-East Movement for Federalization on Wednesday put up demands to the interim government in Kiev, including a constitutional reform and Ukraine’s transition to a federative state structure.

Local media reports that the Movement led by Ukraine’s presidential candidate Oleg Tsaryov held its first meeting in Donetsk earlier on Wednesday.

It was attended by representatives of public organizations who are holding pro-federalization rallies in Lugansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Odessa and Zaporozhye. They drafted two blocks of requirements to the authorities in Kiev.

The first block concerns political persecution. The movement demands that the authorities adopt a law on amnesty for anti-Kiev protesters; drop criminal charges against the officers of Alfa and Berkut anti-riot police units and release political prisoners, including Pavel Gubarev, the People’s Governor of the Donetsk region.

The second block concerns military matters. Ukraine’s South-East Movement for Federalization demands that the Kiev authorities cancel mobilization and stop all security operations in eastern Ukraine.

On April 11, Oleg Tsaryov said he would be ready to head Ukraine’s South-East Movement for Federalization. He strongly believes that federalization is the only way to save Ukraine from disintegration.

[John Dolva]

Thursday, April 17

00:17 GMT:

Slovakia has increased security in the eastern part of the country’s border that is adjacent to Ukraine, news agency TASR reported, citing a statement by Interior Minister Robert Kalinyak.

“The situation in Ukraine is developing dramatically. We have adopted extraordinary measures,” Kalinyak said without specifying which measures were taken to enhance security.

00:15 GMT:

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton met with Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsa ahead of the Geneva talks on Ukraine between Russia, the US, the EU, and Ukraine.

[John Dolva]

MOSOCW, April 17./ITAR-TASS/.

After Viktor Yanukovych suspended agreement with EU, anti-constitutional coup, armed seizure of power occurred in Ukraine, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said during Q&A live session.

Yanukovych performed his presidential duties the way he deemed possible. He said he had not dared sign a decree to use force against civilians, Vladimir Putin noted.

“I’ve talked to him many times, during the crisis and also after he came to Russia, we also talked about the possible use of force.”

“No matter how you regard this, but the essence of his answer was in the words he told me: ‘I’ve repeatedly thought about the need of the use of force. I had not dared to sign a decree on the use of force against my citizens’,” Putin said.

Putin disagrees Yanukovych fled the country, he was away in a region while power in Kiev was seized in defiance of the concluded accords.

Dialogue between Russia and Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says it is most important to have an immediate dialogue between Ukraine’s current authorities and the regions.

“There should be not a showing-off dialogue among themselves, but a true search for compromises,” Putin said during a Q&A session adding Kiev’s authorities had been visiting the country’s regions, where, however, they had meetings not with the people, but with their own allies.

“Beginning of the negotiations in Geneva (on Ukraine) is most important,” Putin said. “It is very important to discuss jointly how to overcome the situation.

East of Ukraine

All allegations concerning Russia’s military involvement in the recent developments in the east of Ukraine are “rubbish,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Putin: Russian troops oversaw security during Crimean referendum

“It is all rubbish. There are no Russian military detachments in the east of Ukraine,” Putin said. “There are only local people and the best proof (that the Russian military is not involved) is that people are taking off their masks.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is sure in the framework of inter-state relations it would be possible to reach mutual understanding with Ukraine.

“We shall not separate from each other,” he said during a Q&A session.

[John Dolva]

yeterday an agreement was reached in geneva. parties involved have now taken a "wait and see" apporoach :

This is a text of the agreement as presented by the guardian :

Here is the text of the Geneva joint statement, via Julian Borger:

Geneva Statement of April 17, 2014

The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens.

All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions. The participants strongly condemned and rejected all expressions of extremism, racism and religious intolerance, including anti-semitism.

All illegal armed groups must be disarmed; all illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners; all illegally occupied streets, squares and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated.

Amnesty will be granted to protestors and to those who have left buildings and other public places and surrendered weapons, with the exception of those found guilty of capital crimes.

It was agreed that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission should play a leading role in assisting Ukrainian authorities and local communities in the immediate implementation of these de-escalation measures wherever they are needed most, beginning in the coming days. The U.S., E.U. and Russia commit to support this mission, including by providing monitors.

The announced constitutional process will be inclusive, transparent and accountable. It will include the immediate establishment of a broad national dialogue, with outreach to all of Ukraine’s regions and political constituencies, and allow for the consideration of public comments and proposed amendments.

The participants underlined the importance of economic and financial stability in Ukraine and would be ready to discuss additional support as the above steps are implemented."

[John Dolva]

RT :

"... Soon after the Geneva document, adopted at a four-side meeting between Ukraine, the US, the EU and Russia, was published, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsa said Kiev is not bound by its recommendations.

According to Deshchytsa cited by RIA Novosti, “the troops in the East of the country are carrying out a special operation and can remain where they are.” ..."

________________________

Particular attention must be paid to how the junta deals with the fascist militias formed and being formed now. Their position is that they will not disarm. Given that they are the mainstay of the juntas rise to power in the first place, how the junta deals with them will likely determine how all other factions will act. Should the junta choose to act decisively with them and desist from any actions that discriminate against the legitimate concerns of the federalists it seems to me possible that this may be a beginning. There are reasons to think that the junta will not follow through.

[Steven Gaal]

The Dangerous Neocon-R2P Alliance

April 18, 2014

Exclusive: After U.S. neocons helped stir up a crisis in Ukraine—with a big assist from the biased American press corps – the Obama administration looked for a diplomatic off-ramp, but this pattern of hyped outrage and belated reconciliation is a risky way to make foreign policy, says Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

The American mainstream news media has rarely bought in so thoroughly to a U.S. government propaganda campaign as it has in taking sides in support of the post-coup government in Ukraine and against Russia and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Part of this is explained by the longstanding animus toward Russian President Vladimir Putin for his autocratic style, his shirtless photographs and his government’s opposition to gay rights. Another part is a hangover from the Cold War when the Russkies were the enemy. In Official Washington, there is palpable nostalgia for the days of Ronald Reagan’s anticommunist swagger and “Red Dawn” fantasies.

Secretary of State John Kerry attending a four-way diplomatic conference in Geneva on April 17, 2014, involving the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. (State Department photo)

But another reason for the biased coverage from the U.S. press corps is the recent fusion of the still-influential neoconservatives with more liberal “responsibility to protect” (R2P) activists who believe in “humanitarian” military interventions. The modern mainstream U.S. news media is dominated by these two groups: neocons on the right and R2Pers on the center-left.

As one longtime Washington observer told me recently the neocons are motivated by two things, love of Israel and hatred of Russia. Meanwhile, the R2Pers are easily enamored of idealistic young people in street protests.

The two elements of this alliance – the neocons and the R2Pers – also now represent the dominant foreign policy establishment in Official Washington, with the few remaining “realists” largely shoved to the side, including to some degree President Barack Obama who has “realist” tendencies but continues to cede control over his administration’s actions abroad to aggressive neocon-R2P operatives.

During Obama’s first term, he made the fateful decision to create a “team of rivals” of powerful political and bureaucratic figures – the likes of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and General David Petraeus. They skillfully funneled the President into hawkish decisions that they wanted, such as a “surge” of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan and a major confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. (Both positions were pushed aggressively by the neocons.)

In 2011, the neocons and the R2Pers teamed up for the war against Libya, which was sold to the United Nations Security Council as simply a limited intervention to protect civilians in the east whom Muammar Gaddafi had labeled “terrorists.” However, once the U.S.-orchestrated military operation got going, it quickly turned into a “regime change” war, eliminating longtime neocon nemesis, Gaddafi, to Hillary Clinton’s hawkish delight.

In Obama’s second term, the original “team of rivals” is gone, but foreign policy is being defined by the likes of Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, a neocon, and Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, a leading R2Per, with a substantial supporting role by neocon Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. Obama defeated McCain in 2008, but McCain now is pulling the strings of Secretary of State John Kerry, who also appears enamored of the hawkish stances demanded by Nuland and Power.

Power was a passionate advocate for bombing Syria to degrade the military capabilities of President Bashar al-Assad who is in the midst of a bloody civil war. For her part, Nuland threw the weight of the U.S. government behind Ukrainian protesters who – with crucial help from neo-Nazi militias – ousted elected (but corrupt) President Viktor Yanukovych in February.

To the surprise of many people who knew Kerry in his early days – as a Vietnam veteran against the war and as an aggressive Senate investigator in the 1980s – Kerry has consistently taken the side of the neocons and the R2Pers. As Secretary of State since February 2013, he also has built a dubious reputation for himself as someone who rushes to judgments and disregards evidence when the facts are inconvenient. [see Consortiumnews.com’s “What’s the Matter with John Kerry?”]

Sarin Attack

After a sarin gas attack last Aug. 21 outside Damascus, Kerry jumped to the conclusion that Assad’s government was at fault despite serious doubts within the U.S. intelligence community and among independent analysts. Then, without presenting a shred of verifiable evidence, he gave a bellicose speech on Aug. 30 claiming repeatedly that “we know” that the regime did it.

Though it still has not been ascertained whether regime forces or the rebels were responsible, it is now clear that Kerry was wrong in asserting U.S. government certainty, especially after a team of rocket scientists determined that the one rocket found to carry sarin had a maximum range of about two kilometers, much less than was needed to fit with Kerry’s claims.

One of those scientists, MIT’s Theodore Postol, told MintPress News that “According to our analysis, I would not … claim that I know who executed the attack, but it’s very clear that John Kerry had very bad intelligence at best or, at worst, lied about the intelligence he had.”

Postol compared Kerry’s presentation to the Bush-43 administration’s assertions about Iraq possessing WMD in 2002-03 and the Johnson administration citing the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964. Postol also noted the failure of the U.S. press to question the U.S. government’s accusations against Syria.

“To me, the fact that people are not focused on how the administration lied is very disturbing and shows how far the community of journalists and the community of so-called security experts has strayed from their responsibility,” Postol said. “The government so specifically distorted the evidence that it presented a very real danger to the country and the world. I am concerned about the collapse of traditional journalism and the future of the country.”

Just this week, Kerry further augmented his new reputation as a person who doesn’t check his facts and simply spouts propaganda. On Thursday, after a Geneva conference called to tamp down tensions in Ukraine, Kerry rhetorically poured fuel on the fire by citing a claim about pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine threatening local Jews.

“Just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to Jews in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as Jews. And obviously, the accompanying threat implied is – or threatened – or suffer the consequences, one way or the other,” Kerry said.

“In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it’s grotesque. It is beyond unacceptable. And any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities, from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of, there is no place for that.”

However, in the days before Kerry spoke, the distribution of the leaflet in Donetsk had been denounced as a black-propaganda hoax designed to discredit the pro-Russian protesters.

A Reported Hoax

As JTA, “the Global Jewish News Source,” reported on Wednesday, “Pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine denied any involvement in the circulation of fliers calling on Jews to register with separatists and pay special taxes.” Among those denying the legitimacy of the fliers was Denis Pushilin, the person whose name was signed at the bottom. He termed the fliers a “provocation” designed to discredit the resistance in eastern Ukraine against the post-coup regime in Kiev.

The issue of anti-Semitism has been a sensitive one for the Kiev regime because neo-Nazi militias played a key role in overthrowing President Yanukovych on Feb. 22, and now – renamed as Ukraine’s “National Guard” – these militias have joined in the repression of the protests in eastern Ukraine, including the killing of three protesters this week.

The right-wing Szoboda party and the Right Sektor, which spearheaded the decisive attacks that forced Yanukovych to flee for his life, trace their political lineage back to Stepan Bandera, a World War II Nazi collaborator whose paramilitary force collaborated in the extermination of Jews and Poles as part of a campaign to ethnically purify Ukraine.

So, the distribution of anti-Semitic fliers would have served an important political purpose for the Kiev regime by allowing it and its American backers to deflect questions about neo-Nazis in the west by fingering pro-Russians in the east for anti-Semitism. The men who passed out the leaflets were dressed up as pro-Russian paramilitaries but their identities are unknown.

On Friday, the New York Times sought to dispute the possibility that the men might have been pro-Kiev provocateurs by arguing that “there is no evidence” that pro-Kiev operatives are functioning in Donetsk.

But the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy has on its payroll a number of activists and “journalists” operating in Donetsk and elsewhere in the east, according to NED’s list of 65 projects in Ukraine. Founded in 1983, NED took over – in a quasi-public fashion – many of the covert operations formerly run by the CIA.

Last September, NED’s neocon president Carl Gershman wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that called Ukraine “the biggest prize,” the capture of which could ultimately lead to the ouster of Putin, who “may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.”

By citing the suspect flier without noting that its supposed author had already denied its authenticity, Kerry reinforced the growing impression that he is an erratic and biased if not dishonest diplomat.

Obama’s Equivocation

Obama’s role in his administration’s foreign policy fiascos has mostly been to be caught off guard by mischief that his independent-minded underlings have stirred up. Then, once a crisis is touched off – and the propaganda machinery starts churning out hyperbolic alarms – Obama joins in the rhetorical exaggerations before he tries, quietly, to work out some compromise.

In other words, rather than driving the agenda, Obama goes with the neocon-R2P flow before searching for a last-second off-ramp to avert catastrophe. That creates what looks like a disorganized foreign policy consisting of much tough talk but little actual hard power. The cumulative effect has been to make Obama appear weak and indecisive.

One example was Syria, where Obama drew a “red line” suggesting a U.S. military strike if Assad’s regime used chemical weapons. When sarin was used on Aug. 21 resulting in hundreds of deaths, Official Washington’s neocons and R2Pers quickly fingered Assad, firmed up that “group think,” and ridiculed anyone who doubted this conventional wisdom.

With Kerry running near the front of the stampede, Obama tagged along repeating what all the important people thought they knew – that Assad was guilty– but Obama steered away from the war cliff at the last minute. He referred the issue to Congress and then accepted a compromise devised by Putin to have Assad surrender all his chemical weapons, even as Assad continued denying a role in the Aug. 21 attack.

After that Syrian deal was struck, the neocons and R2Pers pummeled Obama for weakness in deciding not to launch major military strikes against Syrian targets. Obama managed to avert another Mideast war but he faced accusations of vacillation.

The Ukraine crisis is following a similar pattern. The neocons and R2Pers immediately took the side of the western Ukrainian protesters in the Maidan as they challenged elected President Yanukovych who hails from eastern Ukraine.

Assistant Secretary Nuland openly supported the rebellion, reminding Ukrainian business leaders that the United States had invested $5 billion in their “European aspirations,” literally passing out cookies to the protesters and secretly plotting who should replace Yanukovych. Her choice, “Yats” or Aresniy Yatsenyuk, not surprisingly ended up as prime minister after the Feb. 22 coup, and he quickly pushed through the parliament a harsh austerity plan demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

R2Pers also rallied to the cause of the Maidan protesters, citing a principled responsibility to protect civilians resisting government repression. However, the R2Pers have taken a remarkably different stance toward the Ukrainians in the east who have risen up against the unelected post-coup regime in Kiev. Those protesters are simply dismissed as pawns of the Russians, deserving whatever they get.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, a prominent R2Per, even wants the U.S. government to arm the Kiev regime so it can put down the pro-Russian protesters violently. On Thursday, Kristof wrote from Kiev: “For decades, Ukrainians have been starved, oppressed and bullied by Russians, and with Russia now inciting instability that could lead to an invasion and dismemberment of eastern Ukraine, plenty of brave Ukrainians here say they’ve had it and are ready to go bear-hunting.”

So, while virtually no one in the mainstream U.S. media will acknowledge the well-documented role played by American neocons and other operatives in inciting instability in Kiev, leading to the violent overthrow of the elected president, almost everyone in the MSM accepts as indisputable fact that the eastern Ukrainian protests against the post-coup regime in Kiev are simply Russian provocations deserving of a violent response.

Economic Pressures

But an oddly discordant note was sounded in the Washington Post of all places. On Thursday, correspondent Anthony Faiola reported from Donetsk that many of the eastern Ukrainians whom he interviewed said the unrest was driven by fear over “economic hardship” and the IMF austerity plan that will make their lives even harder.

“At a most dangerous and delicate time, just as it battles Moscow for hearts and minds across the east, the pro-Western government is set to initiate a shock therapy of economic measures to meet the demands of an emergency bailout from the International Monetary Fund,” Faiola reported.

In other words, even as Kerry, the neocons and the R2Pers blame only the Russians for the unrest in the east, a rare case of actual reporting from the scene finds a more realistic explanation, that many people in eastern Ukraine feel disenfranchised by the violent overthrow of their candidate Yanukovych and are frightened at the prospects of soaring heating bills and other cuts in their already austere lifestyles.

As for President Obama — as a timid “realist” — he has played his typical double game. He responded to the pro-Kiev bias of Official Washington by piling on with angry denunciations of Putin, but – recognizing the painful consequences that would come from a full-blown confrontation with Russia – Obama authorized negotiations to reduce tensions, an agreement that was announced on Thursday in Geneva.

Yet, even if the Ukrainian crisis is gradually walked back from the edge, I’m told that lasting damage has been done to the working relationship that had developed, behind the scenes, between Obama and Putin, collaboration that helped avert a U.S. war on Syria and hammered out a compromise to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.

Putin had hoped that Russian cooperation on those two dangerous issues would open the door to other collaboration with Obama. But the Ukraine crisis brought those prospects to a halt. The Russians are particularly sensitive to the harsh rhetoric emanating from Kerry but also from Obama.

One adviser to the Russian government told me that the people around Putin feel that they are being treated shabbily even as Obama has benefited from their help.

The adviser summed up the Russian attitude: “How can you expect me to work with you during the day when you sleep with my wife at night? How can you whisper in my ear that we are friends and then go out in public and say terrible things about me? It doesn’t work that way"

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

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

RT :

A senior representative of the local Communist Party (KPU) in Slavyansk, which has been in opposition to the coup-imposed Kiev government and supports the federalization of the country with wider powers for the regions, told RIA Novosti that the protesters view the treaty positively and “are ready for compromise.”

However, he added that people are concerned with different interpretations of the agreement.

“We watched [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov, we are quite happy with what he has said. But the Ukrainian side has interpreted the agreements in an absolutely different way,” KPU’s Anatoly Khmelevoy told the agency on Friday.

“It will not take long to disarm, to dismantle the barricades – but where are the guarantees? [The Kiev authorities] need to reach out to us. The talks of preparing a referendum – we still see no steps in this direction. We need to trust each other, for that we need to sit down at the negotiation table – but no one has so far invited us to talk,” Khmelevoy said.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic meanwhile said it will not follow the treaty’s calls until Kiev starts doing so. Speaking to Itar-Tass, the republic’s chair, Denis Pushilin, said that the Kiev authorities are “refusing to pull back the troops from the territory of the Donetsk Region, and in those conditions it is impossible to talk of compromise.”

Kiev “must vacate the seized buildings, disarm the illegal armed groups – the National Guard and the Right Sector – and free all the political prisoners,” Pushilin stressed. “After that, we will be ready for dialogue.”

[Steven Gaal]

Nato’s Action Plan in Ukraine Is Right out of Dr Strangelove

US pushes to dominate the Eurasian landmass

by John Pilger / April 18th, 2014

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

I watched Dr Strangelove the other day. I have seen it perhaps a dozen times; it makes sense of senseless news. When Major TJ “King” Kong goes “toe to toe with the Rooskies” and flies his rogue B52 nuclear bomber to a target in Russia, it’s left to General “Buck” Turgidson to reassure the president. Strike first, says the general, and “you got no more than 10-20 million killed, tops”. President Merkin Muffley: “I will not go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler.” General Turgidson: “Perhaps it might be better, Mr President, if you were more concerned with the American people than with your image in the history books.”

The genius of Stanley Kubrick’s film is that it accurately represents the cold war’s lunacy and dangers. Most of the characters are based on real people and real maniacs. There is no equivalent to Strangelove today because popular culture is directed almost entirely at our interior lives, as if identity is the moral zeitgeist and true satire is redundant, yet the dangers are the same. The nuclear clock has remained at five minutes to midnight; the same false flags are hoisted above the same targets by the same “invisible government”, as Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations, described modern propaganda.

In 1964, the year Dr Strangelove was made, “the missile gap” was the false flag. To build more and bigger nuclear weapons and pursue an undeclared policy of domination, President John F Kennedy approved the CIA’s propaganda that the Soviet Union was well ahead of the US in the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles. This filled front pages as the “Russian threat”. In fact, the Americans were so far ahead in production of the missiles, the Russians never approached them. The cold war was based largely on this lie.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has ringed Russia with military bases, nuclear warplanes and missiles as part of its Nato enlargement project. Reneging on the Reagan administration’s promise to the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that Nato would not expand “one inch to the east”, Nato has all but taken over eastern Europe. In the former Soviet Caucasus, Nato’s military build-up is the most extensive since the second world war.

In February, the US mounted one of its proxy “colour” coups against the elected government of Ukraine; the shock troops were fascists. For the first time since 1945, a pro-Nazi, openly antisemitic party controls key areas of state power in a European capital. No western European leader has condemned this revival of fascism on the border of Russia. Some 30 million Russians died in the invasion of their country by Hitler’s Nazis, who were supported by the infamous Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) which was responsible for numerous Jewish and Polish massacres. The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, of which the UPA was the military wing, inspires today’s Svoboda party.

Since Washington’s putsch in Kiev – and Moscow’s inevitable response in Russian Crimea to protect its Black Sea fleet – the provocation and isolation of Russia have been inverted in the news to the “Russian threat”. This is fossilised propaganda. The US air force general who runs Nato forces in Europe – General Philip Breedlove, no less – claimed more than two weeks ago to have pictures showing 40,000 Russian troops “massing” on the border with Ukraine. So did Colin Powell claim to have pictures proving there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What is certain is that Barack Obama’s rapacious, reckless coup in Ukraine has ignited a civil war and Vladimir Putin is being lured into a trap.

Following a 13-year rampage that began in stricken Afghanistan well after Osama bin Laden had fled, then destroyed Iraq beneath a false flag, invented a “nuclear rogue” in Iran, dispatched Libya to a Hobbesian anarchy and backed jihadists in Syria, the US finally has a new cold war to supplement its worldwide campaign of murder and terror by drone.

A Nato membership action plan – straight from the war room of Dr Strangelove – is General Breedlove’s gift to the new dictatorship in Ukraine. “Rapid Trident” will put US troops on Ukraine’s Russian border and “Sea Breeze” will put US warships within sight of Russian ports. At the same time, Nato war games in eastern Europe are designed to intimidate Russia. Imagine the response if this madness was reversed and happened on the US’s borders. Cue General Turgidson.

And there is China. On 23 April, Obama will begin a tour of Asia to promote his “pivot” to China. The aim is to convince his “allies” in the region, principally Japan, to rearm and prepare for the possibility of war with China. By 2020, almost two-thirds of all US naval forces in the world will be transferred to the Asia-Pacific area. This is the greatest military concentration in that vast region since the second world war.

In an arc extending from Australia to Japan, China will face US missiles and nuclear-armed bombers. A strategic naval base is being built on the Korean island of Cheju, less than 400 miles from Shanghai and the industrial heartland of the only country whose economic power is likely to surpass that of the US. Obama’s “pivot” is designed to undermine China’s influence in its region. It is as if a world war has begun by other means.

This is not a Dr Strangelove fantasy. Obama’s defence secretary, Charles “Chuck” Hagel, was in Beijing last week to deliver a warning that China, like Russia, could face isolation and war if it did not bow to US demands. He compared the annexation of Crimea to China’s complex territorial dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. “You cannot go around the world,” said Hagel with a straight face, “and violate the sovereignty of nations by force, coercion or intimidation.” As for America’s massive movement of naval forces and nuclear weapons to Asia, that is “a sign of the humanitarian assistance the US military can provide”.

Obama is seeking a bigger budget for nuclear weapons than the historical peak during the cold war, the era of Dr Strangelove. The US is pursuing its longstanding ambition to dominate the Eurasian landmass, stretching from China to Europe: a “manifest destiny” made right by might.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

RT :

Five people have been reportedly killed in a shooting in Slavyansk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by anti-government protesters.

The fatalities came after a night attack on a protester checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, a Rossiya 24 news channel correspondent reported. Four cars drove by the checkpoint and opened fire at the local residents holding it, killing three people and seriously injuring another one.

A group of protesters, who had firearms unlike those holding the checkpoint, was called from their camp in the city. They opened fire at the attackers, killing two of them, the report said.

The protesters in the confrontation reportedly captured the attackers’ two cars. Firearms, explosives and aerial photos of Slavyansk were discovered there.

RIA Novosti cites a doctor at the city’s main hospital as saying that four people with gunshots were brought in overnight.

“Apparently, something serious happened,” the doctor said.

The protesters believe that they were attacked by paramilitary from the Right Sector.

[John Dolva]

Five people have been killed in a gunfight in Slavyansk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by anti-government protesters. The fatalities include three protesters and two attackers, who are believed to be from the Right Sector paramilitary.

Read RT's live updates on Ukrainian turmoil

The deaths came after a night attack on a protester checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. Four cars drove by the checkpoint and opened fire at the local residents manning it, killing two people and seriously injuring several others.

“They approached with their high beam headlamps on. Our man went to them and asked not to blind us, show IDs and open the trunk for inspection. Then an assault rifle got stuck out of the window and he was gunned down,” an eyewitness, Vladimir, told RT.

He added some of the people trying to flee the attackers were shot in their backs. One gunshot victim died later in hospital from a head wound, local medics confirmed. Two others are undergoing treatment.

Here filming for @RT_com holding bullets - they are all over the ground here, along with bloodstains. #Slovianskpic.twitter.com/bhaUDaRo7K

— GrahamWPhillips (@GrahamWP_UK) April 20, 2014

The checkpoint was in the control of 26 civilians armed with bats. Their lack of firearms was due to a so-called “Easter truce” announced by both the Kiev authorities and the protest leaders to de-escalate tension.

Among the victims of the night attack is Sergey Rudenko, 53, who worked as a school bus driver, his wife told RIA Novosti. He lived in a village near Slavyansk and was guarding the checkpoint on Easter night together with his two adult sons.

As the civilians were pinned down, a group of 20 protesters with firearms came from the city. They opened fire on the attackers, killing two of them and sent the rest running. Five attackers were injured by the retaliating forces, protest leader, Vyacheslav Ponomaryev, said.

Donetsk region’s interior ministry confirmed fatalities in the gunfight, but said it has information on only three deaths – two among the local residents and one among the attackers. The identity of the attacker is yet to be established, the law enforcers said.

This was filmed to air on @RT_com , member of self-defence holds up bullets and gives interview as to what happened. pic.twitter.com/6GdqJapCB9

— GrahamWPhillips (@GrahamWP_UK) April 20, 2014

The protesters captured two of the attackers’ four cars, which were damaged in the gunfight and later torched by protesters angry over the deaths of their fellow Slavyansk residents.

Footage of the equipment confiscated showed firearms including a machine gun, a night vision device, aerial photos of Slavyansk, military uniforms, camping tools and other things handy for guerrilla warfare.

Later on Sunday the protesters claimed they had detained one of the perpetrators who confessed he was from the Right Sector.

“The young man lost his squad and was trying to flee Slavyansk hitch-hiking towards Kharkov,” one of the self-defense members told RIA Novosti. The detainee is 22 years old. He said he came from the Vinnitsya region to Kiev for the EuroMaidan protests and there he joined the Right Sector.

There was also found a medallion with Right Sector paramilitary symbols, which implicated the radical nationalist movement in the attack.

Right Sector spokesman Artem Skoropadsky denied the group’s involvement in the raid on Slavyansk.

Video screenshot

"It is a blasphemous provocation from Russia: blasphemous because it took place on a holy night for Christians, on Easter night. This was clearly carried out by Russian special forces," he told Reuters.

The attackers may have been planning a subsequent raid on the protester-held TV tower in Slavyansk, which is marked by a circle on the maps discovered at the captured cars, Ponomaryev said.

The protester’s self-defense force HQ told Interfax that there were reports of gunfire near four other checkpoints overnight, but no clashes happened at either of them.

Video screenshot

In a separate incident in central Slavyansk, two people have been injured overnight, after a group of unidentified gunmen fired at them. Two young men were shot in the leg after they ignored an order to stop and tried to flee, RIA Novosti reported. The report gives no account of events after the shooting, but both victims are now in hospital.

Protest leaders ordered a curfew in Slavyansk between 12:00pm and 06:00am in response to the overnight violence.

[John Dolva]

SLAVYANSK, April 20, /ITAR-TASS/. People’s volunteer corps in the town of Slavyansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region have been put on alert over reports about plans to stage attacks on block posts and administrative buildings occupied by the Donetsk People’s Republic, Slavyansk’s people’s mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

“We have information that an attack on our positions is planned soon. We are getting prepared to defend ourselves,” he said.

According to Ponomarev, reports have been coming since morning about movements of armed people around the town. Attempts to enter talks have failed. It is not yet clear whether these people are servicemen of regular army units. Representatives of the Donetsk Republic believe they are Right Sector radicals.

Earlier on Sunday, representatives of the volunteer corps said that they an Irma Krat had been detained in Slavyans. The woman is said to be a Maidan activist who had been involved in subversive activities in the town. According to other reports, a Right Sector activist, young man from Vinnitsy in Ukraine’s west had strayed from his group and surrendered to the Slavyansk people’s volunteer corps.

[John Dolva]

ITAR-TASS :

Five people died and another eight were injured in a shoot-out near east Ukraine's Sloviansk overnight to April 20. A group of unknown gunmen attacked a checkpoint near the city. The attackers reportedly had four cars. Two members of militia, that were guarding the checkpoint, were shot and died instantly, one person died in hospital. Two of the attackers were killed in return fire, another five were injured. Documents have been found that prove the gunmen were connected to the ultranationalist organization 'The Right Sector."

http://en.itar-tass.com/world/728886

[Steven Gaal]

21 April 2014, 08:14

US Russophobia approaching pathological transference

© Photo: Flickr.com/NASA HQ PHOTO/cc-by-nc

The headline in the Boston Globe reads: "Obama focuses updated Cold War approach on Putin" and the New York Times article by one Peter Baker that follows is one of the one of the most acidic, fact-starved, sanctimonious, self-righteous, chest beating, Russophobic, war-propagandistic, Putin-envious, out-of-touch diatribes to come out of the western media in the current tidal wave of Gleichschaltung-like anti-Russian war-propaganda.

The attack is almost criminal in its eschewing of the truth and if you dear reader ever entertained the idea that Boston was a bastion of liberal truth and that the first black American president was some sort of Martin Luther King, you may now group Boston with the vilest redneck burgs in Alabama and the president to the right of the farthest right of the neo-conservative war profiteers.

Rarely does an article deserve to be taken apart at the seams but this one does as the outright lies and vitriol are so blatant that there is a danger if even a small portion of the masses believe even 10% of it.That danger is not to the world, or to us over here in Moscow (we are unfortunately used to these kinds of attacks from the Russophobic lunatic fringe), that danger is to the American public, who continue to have the wool pulled over their eyes by a president and a government that is ready to send them off to die and force countless generations to come into slavery to pay for their maniacal excesses.

Openly Reviving the Cold War

To begin with the headline and the first paragraph take no issue with the fact the Cold War is over. However it does serve to announce to the world that what even three months ago was a well kept secret and something denied by politicians and those in power in Washington, namely that the US/NATO were pursuing a continuation of the Cold War, is now official policy and neither Obama and his henchmen nor the US media establishment have the slightest reservation (due to their delusional architecture) in admitting to what is in fact the complete and utter failure that is forcing the US to cling to a desperate outdated recidivist strategy that it now hopes to apply to a democratic country.

Baker writes: "The crisis in Ukraine defies easy resolution and President Obama and his national security team are looking to forge a new long-term approach to Russia that applies an updated version of the Cold War strategy of containment."

The outright idiocy of the first sentence (as if the US is actually looking for a resolution) denies the fact that it is the US that destabilized Ukraine in the first place and that they continue to support the illegitimate coup government and the neo-nazis who brought the junta to power.

"... updated version of the Cold War strategy of containment."

We must recall that this strategy was supposed to be against the Soviet Union and in order to stop the spread of Communism. Yet like bringing nazis back to power in Europe, we can see that the US never learns history's lessons and continues to pursue dangerous, confrontational, aggressive caveman policies on the international stage.

The US Pariah's Psychotic Transference

Let read the next installment:

"Just as the United States resolved in the aftermath of World War II to counter the Soviet Union and its global ambitions, Obama is focused on isolating President Vladimir Putin’s Russia by cutting off its economic and political ties to the outside world, limiting its expansionist ambitions in its own neighborhood and effectively making it a pariah state."

Clearly the pathological transference of those directing the writer and the manipulation in the above is aimed at painting Obama as some sort of great "war president" when in fact he is a cowardly puppet who gets pleasure from authorizing extra-judicial executions and destroying countries.

The pathological transference of applying outdated policies designed as tools against the Soviet Union to Russia and accusing Russia of having "expansionist ambitions" is stunning. Just the fact that Obama and the US think they have some right to meddle and dictate to Russia and Europe, what they can do in their own neighborhood is a sign of their own expansionist mindset.

The unbelievable arrogance, hypocrisy and self-serving historical revisionism is also stunning in the above as we know that it was the US that destabilized Ukraine, organized the armed takeover of a democratic European nation and brought nazis to power in Europe who are calling for killing Russians.

The truest pariah and rogue criminal state in the world is the United States of America. Guilty of multiple acts of aggressive war, continuing to maintain an illegal torture prison, continuing to execute its own citizens, executing people worldwide without trial or charge and overthrowing governments and killing leaders whenever the whim pleases them makes the US the most dangerous pariah nation in the history of mankind.

Now tell me. In what way is Russia a pariah nation?

Obama Stomps His Feet and Holds His Breath

The writer says Obama has "concluded he will never have a constructive relationship with Putin" no matter what. I dare say after the campaign by the US to ruin the Sochi Olympics, Obama running around the world trying to implement sanctions against Russia for the coup d'état he himself signed off on, the non-stop placing of NATO war elements closer and closer to Russia and the fiasco in Syria, I think it would be safe to say that it is President Putin, who has continuously tried to work with Obama, who should refuse to have anything to do with Nobel-Peace-Prize-fraud president.

Ignore the Master?

"Obama will try to minimize the disruption Putin can cause. .. ignore the master of the Kremlin."

The disruption Putin might cause? What "disruption" is the writer talking about? Disrupting plans by Washington to violate further the sovereign state of Ukraine or NATO continuing to surround Russia and the People's Republic of China or perhaps the extermination of Russians in Ukraine and the attempted destruction of the Slavic World or the invasion of the next country that Washington is planning to destroy?

And what is with the "master" thing? This is a new one. Is this another transference of endemic US racism and an attempt to conjugate and/or elicit slave/master images?

“That is the strategy we ought to be pursuing,” said Ivo H. Daalder, formerly Obama’s ambassador to NATO, "... it may solve your Russia problem.”

Your "Russia problem"? Perhaps Mr. Daalder has also lost it? Maybe he will enlighten us with a "final solution"? Unbelievable!

McFaul 2.0: Dangerous Russophobe

The article states that John F. Tefft, a Russia hater who served as US Ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania and promoted the invasion of South Ossetia while in Georgia, the current crisis and the resurgence of fascist forces in Ukraine and the rabid Russophobia and demonization of Russia in Lithuania, has been chosen to be the next US Ambassador to Russia. Tefft was extremely active and involved and one might say instrumental in bringing about the aforementioned anti-Russian events. As McFaul failed to organize the destabilization of Russia and the ouster of President Putin, apparently Obama is seeking more experiences hands.

Dangerous rhetoric

With regard to the assignment the article states: "... now there is no reluctance to offend the Kremlin."

The US insists on isolating itself even further, for such a policy will backfire as Russian diplomats and leaders continue to stay open to dialogue and diplomacy. Again the arrogance is stunning.

An International Consensus: Coalition of the Willing 2.0

The US is becoming more and more hated every day. As Europeans and the world realize that Obama and his myopic, knuckle-dragging foreign policy elites vetted (like Obama himself) by senile-rabid-Russophobe Brezhinsky are only interested in resources and expanding their own caveman hegemony by force, the consensus against the US will grow thousand-fold. The writer tries to say China is against Russia, this is while China and Russia are discussing plans for tighter military cooperation against the ongoing provocation that is the placing of NATO war elements around both countries.

"The administration’s priority is to hold together an international consensus against Russia, including even China, its longtime supporter on the UN Security Council."

The US is Broke

The writer revealed a little too much I think with the following statement:

"... economic advisers and White House aides urging a measured approach have won out, prevailing upon a cautious president to take one incremental step at a time out of fear of getting too far ahead of skittish Europeans and risking damage to still-fragile economies on both sides of the Atlantic."

We know the US economy is about to collapse and we know that in contrast to the $15 billion Russia was ready to single-handedly hand Ukraine, the entire US/NATO/Eu could only come up with a $1 billion "loan".

Money talks, as they say.

More Sanctions Blackmail: Outright Lies

"The White House has prepared another list of Russian figures and institutions to sanction in the next few days..."

The first round did not phase Russia and was laughed off. I doubt this round will be more successful. Washington might take heed: Your sanctions will backfire I can promise you that.

"... while Putin seems for now to be enjoying the glow of success, he will eventually discover how much economic harm he has brought on his country. Obama’s aides noted the fall of the Russian stock market and the ruble, capital flight from the country and increasing reluctance of foreign investors to expand dealings in Russia."

Again Washington must be delusional, the Russian economy is going strong, the country is in the black and unlike almost all of Europe which is suffering from austerity measures, and the US with forced austerity where the public pay approximately 33% of their income in taxes and are enslaved to the military industrial complex for the next 1,000 years or more, Russia is growing stronger by the day.

Oops! Did I let the cat out of the bag? But then again, that is the real "Russia problem" isn't it?

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Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_21/US-Russophobia-approaching-pathological-transference-1010/

[John Dolva]

MOSCOW, April 21, /ITAR-TASS/. The Kiev authorities’ inability to stop violence of the Right Sector far-right ultranationalist organization prevents the agreements on Ukraine reached last week in Geneva from being implemented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State John Kerry by phone on Monday.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov drew Kerry’s attention to the fact that actions of the Right Sector and other ultranationalists have already led to human deaths.

Russia’s top diplomat urged the de facto Ukrainian authorities to “stop arrests and free activists of the protest movement in the southeastern Ukrainian regions”.

“Inability and unwillingness of the Kiev authorities to put an end to violent actions of the Right Sector jeopardize the implementation of provisions of the Geneva Statement by Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine of April 17,” he said.

“The minister urged the secretary of state to influence Kiev, to prevent hotheads there from provoking a bloody conflict, to prompt the current Ukrainian leadership to strictly abide by commitments it undertook, which would make it possible to start de-escalation of the situation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

“The Russian side specially noted the necessity to organize a nationwide dialogue in Ukraine as soon as possible, including the launch of a constitutional reform with full-fledged participation of all basic political forces and all regions of the country,” it said.

The heads of the Russian and American foreign policy departments agreed to continue contacts on the Ukrainian problems.

The Geneva Statement, adopted after last Thursday’s meeting on Ukraine, in particular envisions that all illegal armed formations should be disarmed in Ukraine, all administrative buildings unblocked and all protesters except for those who committed serious crimes pardoned.

A coup occurred in Ukraine and new people were brought to power amid riots in February, whom Moscow does not recognize as Ukraine's legitimate leaders.

The crisis deteriorated when Crimea, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of the self-proclaimed Ukrainian leaders and reunified with Russia on March 18 after a referendum two days earlier in which it overwhelmingly voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.

After Crimea’s accession to Russia, which Kiev does not accept despite Russia’s repeated statements that the Crimean plebiscite conformed to the international law, protests against the new Kiev authorities erupted in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking southeastern regions, with demonstrators taking control of some government buildings and demanding referendums on the country’s federalization.

[John Dolva]

DONETSK, April 21, /ITAR-TASS/. Federalization supporters in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine, on Monday took control of the city department of Ukraine’s Security Service, the local media reports.

A group of armed men in camouflage arrived at the SBU building. After negotiations with a duty officer who was alone because of the Easter holiday, they took control of the SBU department and hang out the flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic at the gates.

Earlier on Monday, unidentified persons took control of the city police department.