Category Archives: Ukraine
An American Oligarch's Dirty Tale of Corruption
By F. William Engdahl
Rarely does the world get a true look inside the corrupt world of Western oligarchs and the brazen manipulations they use to enhance their fortunes at the expense of the public good. The following comes from correspondence of the Hungarian-born billionaire, now naturalized American speculator, George Soros. The hacker group CyberBerkut has published online letters allegedly written by Soros that reveal him not only as puppet master of the US-backed Ukraine regime. They also reveal his machinations with the US Government and the officials of the European Union in a scheme where, if he succeeds, he could win billions in the plunder of Ukraine assets. All, of course, would be at the expense of Ukrainian citizens and of EU taxpayers.
What the three hacked documents reveal is a degree of behind-the-scene manipulation of the most minute details of the Kiev regime by the New York billionaire.
In the longest memo, dated March 15, 2015 and marked "Confidential" Soros outlines a detailed map of actions for the Ukraine regime. Titled, "A short and medium term comprehensive strategy for the new Ukraine," the memo from Soros calls for steps to "restore the fighting capacity of Ukraine without violating the Minsk agreement." To do the restoring, Soros blithely notes that "General Wesley Clark, Polish General Skrzypczak and a few specialists under the auspices of the Atlantic Council [emphasis added—f.w.e.] will advise President Poroshenko how to restore the fighting capacity of Ukraine without violating the Minsk agreement."
Soros also calls for supplying lethal arms to Ukraine and secretly training Ukrainian army personnel in Romania to avoid direct NATO presence in Ukraine. The Atlantic Council is a leading Washington pro-NATO think tank.
Notably, Wesley Clark is also a business associate of Soros in BNK Petroleum which does business in Poland.
Clark, some might recall, was the mentally-unstable NATO General in charge of the 1999 bombing of Serbia who ordered NATO soldiers to fire on Russian soldiers guarding the Pristina International Airport. The Russians were there as a part of an agreed joint NATO–Russia peacekeeping operation supposed to police Kosovo. The British Commander, General Mike Jackson refused Clark, retorting, "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you." Now Clark apparently decided to come out of retirement for the chance to go at Russia directly.
Naked asset grab
In his March 2015 memo Soros further writes that Ukrainian President Poroshenko's "first priority must be to regain control of financial markets," which he assures Poroshenko that Soros would be ready to assist in: "I am ready to call Jack Lew of the US Treasury to sound him out about the swap agreement."
He also calls on the EU to give Ukraine an annual aid sum of €11 billion via a special EU borrowing facility. Soros proposes in effect using the EU's "AAA" top credit rating to provide a risk insurance for investment into Ukraine.
Whose risk would the EU insure?
Soros details, "I am prepared to invest up to €1 billion in Ukrainian businesses. This is likely to attract the interest of the investment community. As stated above, Ukraine must become an attractive investment destination." Not to leave any doubt, Soros continues, "The investments will be for-profit but I will pledge to contribute the profits to my foundations. This should allay suspicions that I am advocating policies in search of personal gain. "
For anyone familiar with the history of the Soros Open Society Foundations in Eastern Europe and around the world since the late 1980's, will know that his supposedly philanthropic "democracy-building" projects in Poland, Russia, or Ukraine in the 1990's allowed Soros the businessman to literally plunder the former communist countries using Harvard University's "shock therapy" messiah, and Soros associate, Jeffrey Sachs, to convince the post-Soviet governments to privatize and open to a "free market" at once, rather than gradually.
The example of Soros in Liberia is instructive for understanding the seemingly seamless interplay between Soros the shrewd businessman and Soros the philanthropist. In West Africa George Soros backed a former Open Society employee of his, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, giving her international publicity and through his influence, even arranging a Nobel Peace Prize for her in 2011, insuring her election as president. Before her presidency she had been well-indoctrinated into the Western free market game, studying economics at Harvard and working for the US-controlled World Bank in Washington and the Rockefeller Citibank in Nairobi. Before becoming Liberia's President, she worked for Soros directly as chair of his Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
Once in office, President Sirleaf opened the doors for Soros to take over major Liberian gold and base metals assets along with his partner, Nathaniel Rothschild. One of her first acts as President was to also invite the Pentagon's new Africa Command, AFRICOM, into Liberia whose purpose as a Liberian investigation revealed, was to "protect George Soros and Rothschild mining operations in West Africa rather than champion stability and human rights."
Naftogaz the target
The Soros memo makes clear he has his eyes on the Ukrainian state gas and energy monopoly, Naftogaz. He writes, "The centerpiece of economic reforms will be the reorganization of Naftogaz and the introduction of market pricing for all forms of energy, replacing hidden subsidies…"
In an earlier letter Soros wrote in December 2014 to both President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, Soros openly called for his Shock Therapy: "I want to appeal to you to unite behind the reformers in your government and give your wholehearted support to a radical, 'big bang' type of approach. That is to say, administrative controls would be removed and the economy would move to market prices rapidly rather than gradually…Naftogaz needs to be reorganized with a big bang replacing the hidden subsidies…"
Splitting Naftogaz into separate companies could allow Soros to take control of one of the new branches and essentially privatize its profits. He already suggested that he indirectly brought in US consulting company, McKinsey, to advise Naftogaz on the privatization "big bang."
The Puppet-Master?
The totality of what is revealed in the three hacked documents show that Soros is effectively the puppet-master pulling most of the strings in Kiev. Soros Foundation's Ukraine branch, International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) has been involved in Ukraine since 1989. His IRF doled out more than $100 million to Ukrainian NGOs two years before the fall of the Soviet Union, creating the preconditions for Ukraine's independence from Russia in 1991. Soros also admitted to financing the 2013-2014 Maidan Square protests that brought the current government into power.
Soros' foundations were also deeply involved in the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought the corrupt but pro-NATO Viktor Yushchenko into power with his American wife who had been in the US State Department. In 2004 just weeks after Soros' International Renaissance Foundation had succeeded in getting Viktor Yushchenko as President of Ukraine, Michael McFaul wrote an OpEd for the Washington Post. McFaul, a specialist in organizing color revolutions, who later became US Ambassador to Russia, revealed:
Did Americans meddle in the internal affairs of Ukraine? Yes. The American agents of influence would prefer different language to describe their activities — democratic assistance, democracy promotion, civil society support, etc. — but their work, however labeled, seeks to influence political change in Ukraine. The U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and a few other foundations sponsored certain U.S. organizations, including Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the Solidarity Center, the Eurasia Foundation, Internews and several others to provide small grants and technical assistance to Ukrainian civil society. The European Union, individual European countries and the Soros-funded International Renaissance Foundation did the same.
Soros shapes 'New Ukraine'
Today the CyberBerkut hacked papers show that Soros' IRF money is behind creation of a National Reform Council, a body organized by presidential decree from Poroshenko which allows the Ukrainian president to push bills through Ukraine's legislature. Soros writes, "The framework for bringing the various branches of government together has also emerged. The National Reform Council (NRC) brings together the presidential administration, the cabinet of ministers, the Rada and its committees and civil society. The International Renaissance Foundation which is the Ukrainian branch of the Soros Foundations was the sole financial supporter of the NRC until now…"
Soros' NRC in effect is the vehicle to allow the President to override parliamentary debate to push through "reforms," with the declared first priority being privatization of Naftogaz and raising gas prices drastically to Ukrainian industry and households, something the bankrupt country can hardly afford.
In his letter to Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk, Soros hints that he played a key role in selection of three key non-Ukrainian ministers—Natalia Jaresko, an American ex- State Department official as Finance Minister; Aivras Abromavicius of Lithuania as Economics Minister, and a health minister from Georgia. Soros in his December 2014 letter, referring to his proposal for a "big bank" privatization of Naftogaz and price rise, states, "You are fortunate to have appointed three 'new Ukrainian' ministers and several natives (sic) who are committed to this approach."
Elsewhere Soros speaks about de facto creating the impression within the EU that the current government of Yatsenyuk is finally cleaning out the notorious corruption that has dominated every Kiev regime since 1991. Creating that temporary reform illusion, he remarks, will convince the EU to cough up the €11 billion annual investment insurance fund. His March 2015 paper says that, "It is essential for the government to produce a visible demonstration (sic) during the next three months in order to change the widely prevailing image of Ukraine as an utterly corrupt country." That he states will open the EU to make the €11 billion insurance guarantee investment fund.
While saying that it is important to show Ukraine as a country that is not corrupt, Soros reveals he has little concern when transparency and proper procedures block his agenda. Talking about his proposals to reform Ukraine's constitution to enable privatizations and other Soros-friendly moves, he complains, "The process has been slowed down by the insistence of the newly elected Rada on proper procedures and total transparency."
Soros suggests that he intends to create this "visible demonstration" through his initiatives, such as using the Soros-funded National Reform Council, a body organized by presidential decree which allows the Ukrainian president to push bills through Ukraine's legislature.
George Soros is also using his new European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank to lobby his Ukraine strategy, with his council members such as Alexander Graf Lambsdorff or Joschka Fischer or Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, not to mention former ECB head, Jean-Claude Trichet no doubt laying a subtle role.
George Soros, now 84, was born in Hungary as a Jew, George Sorosz. Soros once boasted in a TV interview that he posed during the war as a gentile with forged papers, assisting the Horthy government to seize property of other Hungarian Jews who were being shipped to the Nazi death camps. Soros told the TV moderator, "There was no sense that I shouldn't be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it's just like in markets–that if I weren't there–of course, I wasn't doing it, but somebody else would."
This is the same morality apparently behind Soros' activities in Ukraine today. It seems again to matter not to him that the Ukrainian government he helped bring to power in February 2014 US coup d'etat is riddled with explicit anti-semites and self-proclaimed neo-Nazis from the Svoboda Party and Pravy Sektor. George Soros is clearly a devotee of "public-private-partnership." Only here the public gets fleeced to enrich private investors like Mr. Soros and friends. Cynically, Soros signs his Ukraine strategy memo, "George Soros–A self-appointed advocate of the new Ukraine, March 12, 2015."
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook".
This entry was posted in Ukraine and tagged Capitalism, Corporate Greed, Corporate Oligarchy, CyberBerkut, George Soros, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Dinformation, Plutocracy, social justice, Ukraine Coup on June 12, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
"Human rights" imperialism in Ukraine
Image from: Oriental Review
In remarks delivered Wednesday and Thursday, representatives of the Obama administration and the Ukrainian government have sought to stoke up a new Cold War atmosphere against Russia, while proclaiming the right-wing regime in Kiev, brought to power by US and European imperialism in a coup spearheaded by neo-fascist groups, as the front line of the "free world."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk set the tone in meetings Wednesday in Washington with Vice President Biden at the White House, and with the editorial board of the Washington Post, where he denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin and alleged Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.
"Putin is playing with the far-right nationalistic sentiment that still exists in Russia," Yatsenyuk declared—this from a representative of a government that is the distillation of "far-right nationalistic sentiment" in Ukraine. Only last month, the Kiev regime banned the display of Soviet-era military decorations and awards for those who fought in the Red Army against Hitler's invasion of the USSR, while declaring that the Ukrainian anti-communists who collaborated with the Nazis and slaughtered Jews and Poles were the true national heroes.
Yatsenyuk told the Post editors that Ukraine, while not a member of NATO, had become NATO's front line against Russia. "If we fail, this will be a failure of the entire free world," he said.
The Post responded with an editorial Thursday demanding US military aid to Ukraine and criticizing Obama because "The president has ceded leadership on the issue to Germany and France and overridden those in his administration and Congress who support arms deliveries."
Yatsenyuk's theme was then taken up by Samantha Power, the Obama administration's own ambassador to the United Nations, in an hour-long speech in Kiev yesterday, delivered to an audience of rabid Ukrainian nationalists. Power is the personification of "human rights" imperialism, having first come to public notice as a critic of the Clinton administration's refusal to intervene in the Rwandan genocide of 1994—a slaughter that was bound up with the rivalry between French and American imperialism in the region.
Power, an Obama foreign policy aide for a decade, is identified with campaigns for US intervention in Sudan under the pretext of preventing genocide in Darfur, as well as similar efforts in central Africa, Libya, Syria, Nigeria and now Ukraine. Like all defenders of US imperialist interests, Power maintains a crass double standard where the crimes of US allies are concerned (to say nothing of the crimes of US imperialism itself in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries). She has shown no outrage over mass slaughters by Israel in Gaza or by Egyptian military dictator al-Sisi, and she supports the ongoing campaign of starvation and bombing by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
Even by these standards, Power's speech in Kiev Thursday was remarkable for its duplicity and hypocrisy. She denounced as "myths" the well-grounded contention of Russian officials that "the Maidan protesters were pawns of the West," and that "Euromaidan had been engineered by Western capitals in order to topple a democratically-elected government."
In fact, State Department official Victoria Nuland boasted that her agency had bankrolled the Ukrainian movement against the pro-Russian elected president Viktor Yanukovych. She was recorded discussing with the US ambassador to Kiev plans to make "Yats"—as she then referred to opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk—the leader of a new pro-American government.
Power declared that the Maidan movement was directed against "the concentration of power in the hands of a few oligarchs," while avoiding any mention of the Ukrainian president who came to power as a consequence: billionaire Petro Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king," who personifies the corrupt oligarchy whose grip on Ukraine has only been strengthened.
Turning to the current political crisis in Ukraine, provoked by massive cuts in social spending and living standards demanded by the country's creditors, including the IMF, EU and United States, Power declared that this was the fulfillment of the Maidan movement of 2013-2014. "It is about moving from demanding change to actually making change," she declared. "You are still living in the revolution."
Power's suggestion that Ukrainians continue to "make change" came only days after the eruption of mass protests against US-backed austerity measures and dictatorial measures adopted by its puppet government in Kiev. There are reports of widespread draft refusal by Ukrainian youth who do not want to be forced into the military to fight their neighbors in the east. Last week, moreover, an LGBT pride parade was assaulted by far-right militias allied with the government.
One can easily imagine what the US reaction would be if these events had taken place in Russia. They would be the occasion for a massive media-orchestrated campaign. Since they occurred in Ukraine, however, they were ignored by the media, while the US presses ahead with its war plans.
Power's entire speech, along with the statements of Yatsenyuk and the Washington Post, turn reality on its head. In the Orwellian world of the strategists of the American ruling class, a right-wing regime installed by an imperialist-backed putsch and facing deep popular opposition at home is a beacon of the "free world," and the relentless militarization of Eastern Europe by the US and its NATO powers is a necessary response to "Russian aggression."
All of this serves as the preparation for an even more bloody military escalation. From the beginning, the operation in Ukraine was intended to lay the groundwork for war against Russia.
These plans are now entering a new phase. Earlier this week, the G-7 powers met to denounce Russian "aggression" and declare their readiness to implement new sanctions. And behind the scenes, the US is developing plans to reintroduce nuclear missiles in Europe and launch preemptive strikes under the pretext of alleged Russian violations of a nuclear weapons treaty.
Behind its increasingly threadbare and naked propaganda, American imperialism is preparing a global catastrophe.
This entry was posted in Russia, Ukraine, USA and tagged Arseniy Yatsenyuk, fascism, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, social justice, Ukraine Coup, US backing Ukrainian Nazis, US Imperialism, US NATO War Agenda, War Cirmes on June 12, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
War on Donbass Resumes, Western Media Remains Silent
By Eric Draitser
The recent shelling of Donetsk and surrounding areas, carried out by Kiev's military forces, has effectively ended the ceasefire and whatever illusions still remained of the Minsk 2 agreements. While there had been instances of violence before that of recent days, the level of intensity and bloodshed has undoubtedly escalated.
Although the Ukrainian military and Nazi paramilitary units have been targeting civilians – a flagrant war crime by any measure – there is a near total media blackout in the West. Meanwhile, the United States continues to argue that the "overwhelming majority of ceasefire violations" are as a result of anti-Kiev rebel activity, despite providing no evidence to substantiate these utterly false claims. Indeed, in the midst of an ongoing bloody war waged by Kiev against the people of Donbass, Washington continues to hold up President Poroshenko and his government of oligarchs and fascists as a force for peace.
Kiev Ratchets up the War, Rebels Respond
Despite droning propaganda to the contrary, the reality is that Kiev's forces have ended the ceasefire and resumed shelling of civilian and military targets. As of June 9, 2015, there have been dozens of accounts of Kiev attacking the city of Donetsk and smaller towns at or near the contact line (the separation zone agreed to during the Minsk negotiations.) The important point is that these attacks have been ongoing, and are not merely the resumption of hostilities in the last week.
Despite its unwillingness to publicly acknowledge and condemn the actions, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has in fact documented a staggering number of ceasefire violations by Kiev's forces. According to OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) summary table of ceasefire operations on April 23, 2015 for instance, the observers documented that a majority of the uses of heavy artillery came from Kiev-controlled territory, and that any uses outgoing from rebel-controlled territory were, according to the timeline, retaliatory strikes. In fact, a close examination of the timeline reveals that nearly all of the early morning shelling was outgoing from Kiev-controlled territory, suggesting that Ukrainian military forces initiated shelling and then came under fire later in the day.
Of course, one should be careful to draw too many conclusions from the incomplete OSCE data as the scope is limited, and the SMM has been reticent to assign blame or responsibility to Kiev's forces, even in instances where their aggression is blatant. Earlier in April, Ukrainian military and/or paramilitary forces shelled Donetsk City Clinical Hospital No. 21 where, luckily, no patients were injured as the building hit was not in use. As journalist Roger Annis reported after returning from Donetsk in April, "Due to the escalation of shelling in the past several weeks, adults and children are once again spending nights underground in dank and cramped basement shelters. We toured one neighbourhood near the shattered Donetsk airport as shells were falling a few kilometers away. The resumption of daytime shelling is new."
But of course, despite the repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement, the last several days have seen a significant escalation, one that has effectively ended the ceasefire and renewed the active engagement phase of the war.
There are scattered reports of significant casualties throughout the Donetsk region as the Ukrainian military and Nazi paramilitaries commence both renewed shelling and advances beyond the contact line. Last week there were numerous instances of shelling in Donetsk, including on June 3 when at least five civilians were killed, and 24 others wounded. In the aftermath of the shelling, the Chief Doctor at the Petrovksy District Hospital, Igor Rutchenko, said that patients had to be evacuated due to persistent shelling from Ukrainian military forces as the injured were rushed to the facility.
On the morning of June 5th, according to eyewitness accounts in the town of Maryinka, "a 52-year-old man was at home…when a group of Ukrainian troopers entered the yard – about eight men…The troopers started to inspect the [passport] documents, and then the [man] emerged out of the cellar. The Ukies pointed at him their machine guns at once and opened fire…He died from the injuries on the spot." Such flagrant war crimes – summary executions in wartime – go entirely unreported in the western media.
Emotionally powerful video has emerged from Donetsk in recent days showing the results of shelling of residential homes and businesses. According to Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the Donetsk People's Republic, "The Ukrainian forces' most intensive attack was against the village of Shirokino. More than 150 82 mm and 120 mm shells were fired." That such a level of shelling was initiated and sustained indicates the increased level of aggression by Kiev's military.
But here, there must be an important point noted. While the anti-Kiev side continues to report civilians being killed by shelling and other means, there are no such equivalent reports from Ukraine's military. In fact, as noted by Reuters, Kiev's military spokesman Andriy Lysenko stated that, "Three Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and four others wounded in attacks by pro-Russian separatists in the east over the past 24 hours."
Note the difference here. While in Donetsk, it is civilians being killed by Ukrainian military, Kiev can report no such equivalent carnage on its side. Indeed, it seems that all casualties on the Kiev-controlled side of the contact line have been military casualties, while on the rebel side it is both militia and civilian casualties. This simple fact, entirely omitted from the western narrative, is indicative of the nature of the conflict. Moreover, the false equivalence presented by that same media is disingenuous to say the least.
Framing the Narrative of War and "Peace"
The coverage of the conflict in eastern Ukraine has been bad from the beginning. However, the omission of facts, and the clearly distorted coverage, has taken on a new level of insidiousness and dishonesty in recent days. Even in the scant attention that Kiev's escalation does get in western media, it is not called what it is: aggression by Ukraine's military.
Take for example the June 8, 2015 article from US government propaganda mouthpiece Voice of America, entitled In Donetsk, Frequent Shelling Fuels Distrust. Already from the title, one is struck by a clear obfuscation, namely that "distrust" is engendered by shelling, but no mention of whose shelling or whose distrust. Indeed, throughout the entire article, there is not a single mention of shelling committed by Kiev's forces. Rather, one encounters phrases such as "many tend to blame authorities in Kyiv" – a clear evasion of the far more direct, far simpler, and far more accurate statement "Kiev is to blame" or "shelling by Kiev forces." But of course, the purpose here is not to inform, but rather to absolve the Ukrainian military of direct responsibility for war crimes, and instead paint Russia as the aggressor, despite the facts.
Reading carefully this article, one is struck by the multiple images of women and children taking shelter in basements, pleading with media to tell their stories, pleading with the Ukrainian government to stop the shelling. The piece highlights multiple women with families who have been displaced and victimized by Ukrainian military attacks, and yet, conspicuously no mention of the phrase "attacks by Ukrainian military" or any variation on that. One could be forgiven for thinking that the bombardment of these women's homes was a mere act of God, rather than a deliberate shelling of civilians.
Even when the victims are quoted blaming the authorities in Kiev, the article frames this as merely their "opinions." However, VoA goes to great lengths to devote the entire last section of the article to one resident of Kramatorsk who claims to have seen "a couple Russian troops here when it all began," as if to suggest that an unverifiable alleged eyewitness account from more than a year ago somehow justifies the aggression against the women highlighted in the previous section. This is a deliberate propaganda ploy used by VoA as an indirect legitimization and justification of the aggression as being defensive in the face of "Russian troops."
Just a small sampling of other media outlets, ones not directly tied to the US Government in the way that Voice of America is, reveals the explicit and implicit bias in the reporting. Take for instance the headline from the International Business Times, Ukraine Military Fires 150 Mortar Shells At Donetsk Rebels, Russian News Media Claims, which is embedded with a clear bias. The phrase "Russian News Media Claims" is designed to discredit the very fact that is being reported as it relies on a deeply rooted mistrust of any information reported by Russian media, a mistrust skillfully cultivated and promoted by western media.
What is conveniently left out is the fact that it is only Russian media that is reporting on the shelling by Kiev. Therefore, any reportage at all would, by definition, have to be "claimed by Russian media." The idea is to both report what is happening, and to discredit it at the same time. Such dishonesty is par for the course when it comes to media coverage of this war.
The narrative of the war is replete with such dishonest reporting. Sadly, however, the dishonesty and utter callousness goes much deeper than that, to the very language employed and public relations campaign utilized to whitewash the egregious crimes of Kiev.
In September 2014, in the midst of ongoing aggression against Donetsk and Lugansk by Ukrainian military forces, President Poroshenko was in Washington addressing the US Congress and receiving praise from President Obama. As Obama stated:
I want to commend President Poroshenko for having helped to not only broker a cease-fire, but also to push through some very difficult legislation that can improve the perception in eastern Ukraine that they are fully represented and that they are able to determine many of their local affairs in a way that gives them confidence. And those were not easy laws that President Poroshenko passed, but I think they indicated his commitment to an inclusive Ukraine — his commitment to a Ukraine that has decentralization and empowers local communities…I have great confidence that President Poroshenko is balancing a lot of different variables here in a very difficult situation. But he's the right man for the job…And so, President Poroshenko, congratulations on the excellent work that you've done. You have a strong friend not only in me personally, but I think, as you saw in Congress today, you have strong bipartisan support here in the United States.
There is, of course, no mention of any of Poroshenko's egregious war crimes, including the admission by his very own Colonel-General of the Ukrainian Officer Corps Vladimir Ruban, who admitted just two weeks earlier not only the deliberate shelling of civilians in Donetsk by Ukrainian military, but attempted to justify it by suggesting that "Maybe they fully deserved it…They understand that they're being shelled. And it's one thing when some operative, mobile mortar groups drive around and shell the city, you can say there that it's some third provocative party. But when regions of the airfield, the airport are being hit by artillery systems, nobody will say here that it's the separatists shelling themselves." So, President Obama praises Poroshenko as "the right man for the job" while commanders who report to him directly openly admit committing horrific war crimes.
In this light, the recent rumors circulating online that the United States would like to use its influence to pressure the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to award the 2015 prize to Poroshenko are indeed troubling, if not laughable. While the reports, including the letter purporting to be from Volodymyr Groysman, Chairman of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament), cannot be verified as being authentic, they are certainly believable given both the praise that Poroshenko has received from Washington, and the complete disregard for actual peace shown by the Nobel committee in the past.
It should be remembered that Obama himself is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, despite having a record of having initiated or expanded a number of separate wars (Libya, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, etc.), utilizing a kill list to select targets for assassination by drone in places like Pakistan and Somalia, and having supported tacitly or overtly many other wars (Yemen, Gaza, etc.). So while there is no confirmation as to the veracity of the letter, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the US, with its complete disregard for actual and objective notions of peace, would perhaps push the Peace Prize to a war criminal.
To paraphrase the great political economist and philosopher Karl Marx, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce." While undoubtedly true, the war on Donbass is, in fact, both tragedy and farce simultaneously. While there is an unfolding human tragedy in Donetsk, Maryinka, and other cities and towns, the media coverage remains farcical.
Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of all from the region. For while men, women, and children suffer, and families are torn apart, the western media continues to openly distort reality, transforming it into a farce. Sadly, no one with a shred of humanity could possibly be laughing.
Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City, he is the founder of StopImperialism.org and OP-ed columnist for RT, exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook".
This entry was posted in Russia, Ukraine, USA and tagged Donbas region, Donetsk, fascism, Government Corruption, human rights, Kiev, Media Disinformation, Minsk Cease Fire, Petro Poroshenko, Propaganda, social justice, Ukraine Coup, US Imperialism, US NATO War Agenda, War Crimes on June 11, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
Poll finds mass opposition in Europe to war drive vs. Russia over Ukraine
By Alex Lantier
The findings of a poll published yesterday by the Washington, DC-based Pew Research Center, showing broad opposition in Europe to a NATO war with Russia, underscore the anti-democratic character of the US-led war drive against Russia over Ukraine.
The poll was formulated to elicit answers as favorable as possible to US and NATO policy, particularly in regard to a possible war with Russia. The poll questionnaire did not once raise that Russia and NATO both have nuclear weapons, or inquire about the respondents' willingness to risk nuclear war. As a result, the poll vastly underestimates public opposition to war.
The main question on war was whether NATO member states should fight a defensive war against Russia, if Russia "got into a serious military conflict with one of its neighboring countries that is our NATO ally." In such a situation, Article 5 of the NATO Charter on collective self-defense would require all NATO member states to declare war on Russia.
Despite having framed the question in a manner intended to elicit support for such a supposedly defensive war, the Pew poll found broad opposition among Europeans. Fifty-eight percent of Germans, 53 percent of the French population and 51 percent of Italians opposed fighting even a defensive war with Russia to protect a NATO member.
This is not, however, the character of the war that now threatens to erupt. NATO is not playing a defensive role in Ukraine, which is not a NATO member state. The Ukrainian crisis erupted after the US and the European powers backed a fascist-led putsch against a pro-Russian government in Kiev in February 2014, bringing to power an ultra-right regime that launched a civil war against pro-Russian areas of eastern Ukraine. With US and Russian missile forces on heightened alert and NATO land, air and naval forces engaged in continuous exercises on Russia's borders, the world stands on the verge of a catastrophic war provoked by Washington and its European allies.
Popular sentiment emerged most clearly when the Pew poll inquired about initiatives NATO is threatening to pursue in Ukraine. Asked about NATO arming the Kiev regime against Russia, a policy being pushed by the Obama administration, majorities or pluralities opposed the measure in every European country surveyed except Poland, where 50 percent supported arming Kiev.
Fully 77 percent of Germans opposed NATO arming Kiev, versus only 19 percent who supported it. The poll found 65 percent opposition versus 22 percent support in Italy, 66 versus 25 percent in Spain, 59 versus 40 percent in France, and 45 versus 42 percent in Britain.
Opposition within Germany, where the government, the media and sections of academia have been waging a relentless propaganda campaign in support of militarism, was particularly strong. A mere 38 percent of Germans said Russia was a danger to NATO member states on its borders, and only 29 percent blamed Moscow for the violence in Ukraine.
These findings constitute a devastating indictment of last year's Kiev putsch and the ensuing US-led war drive against Russia, which have been backed by governments across Europe. While workers are kept in the dark about the true dangers of a war that they do not want, NATO is pressing ahead with reckless policies overwhelmingly rejected by the European population.
The findings of the Pew poll among Ukrainians expose the claims of Washington and the European imperialist powers that they are supporting Ukraine against Russia in order to defend a nascent democratic regime threatened by Russian aggression. The Kiev regime is imposing brutal austerity measures demanded by the Western banks and using increasingly authoritarian and violent means to suppress internal opposition among Ukraine workers.
Kiev's war against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, fought with the aid of the CIA and various fascistic militias, is being carried out in flagrant disregard of the wishes of the Ukrainian people. According to the Pew poll, more than twice as many Ukrainians want to settle the conflict with the separatists through negotiations (47 percent) than with force (23 percent).
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's policies on these issues are widely unpopular, with 57 percent of the population opposing both his handling of the eastern Ukraine conflict and his posture toward Russia.
The domestic policies of the Kiev regime are no less unpopular. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's disapproval rating is 60 percent.
With the Ukrainian currency in a state of collapse, waves of mass layoffs taking place, and the government hiking the prices of key utilities, the Pew poll shows 94 percent of the people viewing Ukraine's economic situation as "bad." Fifty-five percent of Ukrainians have concluded that the Kiev regime does not respect personal freedoms.
The Pew poll also interviewed Russian respondents, finding a surge in distrust towards NATO, seen as a threat by 81 percent of Russians, as well as general hostility towards Obama (86 percent negative) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (66 percent). While Putin's opposition to NATO's intervention in Ukraine has boosted his approval ratings to 88 percent, there is broad distrust of the oligarchic regime he leads, which emerged from the restoration of capitalism in the USSR. Some 69 percent of Russians and 34 percent of Ukrainians said in the poll that the dissolution of the USSR was bad for their country.
The results of the Pew poll underscore the disastrous political implications of the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, nearly a quarter century ago. Combined with the collapse and plundering of Soviet industry, the dissolution of the USSR geo-strategically crippled Russia, throwing open vast areas of the former Soviet Union to NATO's reactionary intrigues. Above all, the emergence of a criminal oligarchy ruling Russia weakened the opposition that had existed in the international and particularly the European working class to imperialist threats against the USSR.
The preparation of the NATO powers for an all-out war with Russia that could incinerate the planet is colliding with deeply rooted anti-war sentiment in Europe, the United States and worldwide. The very fact that the Pew poll was commissioned is itself a sign of mounting concern in ruling circles internationally over mass opposition to war.
The ruling elites of the imperialist countries have made clear, however, that they intend to ignore popular sentiment and proceed with their campaign against Russia. The New York Times, in its report on the Pew poll, presented the mass opposition to war as a "challenge" to US and NATO war plans that needs to be overcome.
It cited former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder, who called for continued propaganda in support of military action against Russia, saying that, "it will take a serious effort by the alliance to convince its public of the need to prepare for, deter, and, if necessary, respond to a Russian attack."
The Times added that, "public opinion is not always decisive in shaping NATO policy." It continued: "President Ronald Reagan managed to win sufficient European backing to deploy Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles on the [European] Continent despite a substantial peace movement."
The Times' reference to the US deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe during the 1980s is particularly significant. US officials are now discussing escalated missile deployments in Europe and the possibility of launching pre-emptive missile strikes against targets inside Russia.
This entry was posted in Europe, Russia, Ukraine and tagged human rights, Media Disinformation, new Cold War, Propaganda, social justice, Ukraine Coup, US Imperialism, US NATO War Agenda on June 11, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
Protests mount against US-backed regime in Ukraine
By Thomas Gaist
In the latest eruption of mass protests against the US puppet government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, thousands of demonstrators swept through the streets of Kiev this weekend. Marchers demanded cancellation of martial law decrees, the repeal of subsidy cuts that have driven up the price of energy and foodstuffs, and the reversal of cuts to wages and pensions imposed by the government.
Demonstrators held placards demanding an end to cuts in pensions and denouncing the spiking prices of basic commodities. Slogans included "Raise pensions," "We are hungry," "Out with Yatsenyuk and his reforms," and "Impeach Poroshenko!"
The demonstrations over the weekend come on the heels of so-called "Financial Maidan" protests at the end of May, which saw thousands protest in Kiev against catastrophic economic conditions produced by the government's austerity policies.
An LGBT pride parade was assaulted by members of Right Sector and other far-right groups on Friday. The parade was quickly dispersed by attackers who reportedly threw rocks and tear gas capsules at the demonstrators.
In addition to the protest marches, Occupy-style tent camps, referred to in media reports as "Maidan 3.0," sprung up in the center of the city over the weekend. After refusing orders from police to take down the encampment, the campers were assaulted on Sunday by dozens of masked men brandishing black and red fascist flags. The attackers spoke with nearby police units before launching their attack, according to reports. Sputnik News, a Russian state media web site, charged US operatives with intervening inside the Occupy-style protest encampments. It alleged that the protest camps were organized by Rustam Tashbaev of the Stratagem Center for Political Analysis, a US think tank. Sputnik's report featured an alleged photo of Tashbaev, a US citizen, posing for a portrait with US Senator John McCain.
Ukraine has undoubtedly become a hotbed of US intrigue, since a NATO-backed coup led by the fascist Right Sector militia toppled the country's pro-Russian government, and US operatives may well be intervening in the protests. However, what is driving the protests is rising opposition in the Ukrainian population to the Kiev regime's moves to transform Ukraine into a cheap labor platform and garrison state on behalf of the US-NATO war drive against Russia.
Since the February 2014 coup, the population has faced harsh cuts to pensions and social benefits, mass layoffs, sub-subsistence level wages, and skyrocketing prices of basic necessities. Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and at least 1.5 million displaced, and production has virtually collapsed in the country's main industrial centers in Luhansk and Donetsk.
Ukraine's economy will likely contract by at least 9 percent in 2015, according to estimates by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The value of the Ukrainian currency will likely fall by nearly 50 percent in 2015 alone, according to the EBRD.
Last month, the price of water surged by more than 70 percent. Previous months saw increases in natural gas prices of nearly 300 percent. Food, medicine and transportation prices all rose dramatically in the year following the 2014 coup, with some basic items rising by more than 200 percent.
"We are about to see huge energy price increases. This will affect not just the poor but the middle class as well," Volodymyr Ischenko said in comments to the Center for Social and Labor Research this week.
Already in January, months before the latest price hikes, some 30 percent of the population was unable to pay for utilities.
The rising prices are the result of cuts to subsidies for basic goods, dictated to Kiev by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The subsidy cuts free up government funds, which used to be earmarked for keeping energy and basic commodities relatively affordable for working people, to be shoveled into the pockets of Ukraine's creditors in the US and European banks.
There is escalating popular anger against the Kiev regime. Nearly 60 percent of the population is strongly dissatisfied with Poroshenko, with less than 25 percent expressing confidence in Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, according to polls released in March.
The war mounted by the pro-NATO regime against separatist forces in the East has met with large-scale draft dodging by the population in western Ukraine. At least 13,000 soldiers have gone AWOL from Ukrainian government forces since the beginning of the civil war.
More than 80 percent of draftees have failed to respond to musters from the government, and Ukrainian officers now assume that only some 15 percent of soldiers sent on leave will return to their units, according to statistics published by the Washington Post in April.
Even as the economy plummets and popular opposition to the government grows, the re-eruption of military conflict between Kiev regime forces and pro-Russian separatists is plunging the country back toward the conditions of brutal civil war that developed in the aftermath of last year's coup.
According to Foreign Policy, the outbreak of fighting last week has "shattered" the Minsk cease-fire agreement reached this February. The always unstable pause in the fighting, which was largely forced upon the Kiev regime by the deepening economic crisis, has likely been "permanently destroyed" by the renewed clashes, Foreign Policy wrote.
Fearful that its Ukrainian puppet regime could suffer a new defeat or implode politically due to popular opposition, Washington is mobilizing paramilitary forces to prop up the Kiev regime. "They've allowed the Right Sector to integrate with Ukraine's national army. You have US army officers training units with members of Right Sector in them," political analyst Aleksandar Pavic noted in comments to RT Tuesday.
A new generation of Ukrainian fascists are receiving training and advanced military hardware, including night-vision and communications technology, supplied directly by the US Defense Department.
In April, the Pentagon dispatched some 300 US soldiers to conduct training exercises with Ukrainian militants, including known members of the Azov Battalion and other forces affiliated with Ukraine's neo-Nazi milieu, as part of "Operation Fearless Guardian." Comments from Ukrainian anti-terror chief Andriy Lysenko made clear that the training would focus on counter-insurgency tactics designed to control enemy populations, along the lines of those used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This entry was posted in Ukraine and tagged Arseniy Yatsenyuk, fascism, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, Petro Poroshenko, Plutocracy, poverty, Propaganda, social inequality, social justice, Ukrainian coup, US backing Ukrainian Nazis on June 10, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
Obama Wants More Sanctions against Russia
Obama commented after two days of G-7 discussions. He repeated tired old demagogic boilerplate we've heard many times before.
"(W)e're…here to stand up for the fundamental principles that we share as democracies: for freedom; for peace; for the right of nations and peoples to decide their own destiny; for universal human rights and the dignity of every human being," he blustered.
Fact: Democracy in America is pure fantasy. Monied interests control everything. Ordinary people have no say whatever. Elections are farcical when held.
Fact: Throughout his tenure, Obama waged war on fundamental freedoms – including targeting more whistleblowers of government wrongdoing than all his predecessors combined and making America a Big Brother society more than earlier.
Fact: Peace is anathema for US policymakers. Endless direct and proxy wars rage.
Fact: Sovereign independent nations are targeted for regime change.
Fact: America is the world's leading human rights abuser on a global scale.
Obama took credit for nonexistent economic recovery. Protracted Main Street Depression conditions exist.
Real unemployment tops 23%. Tens of millions wanting jobs can't find them. Those created are rotten low-pay, poor or no-benefit part-time or temp ones.
"(I)n the global economy, America is (not) a major source of strength," as Obama claims.
He urged punishing Greece more than already by forcing greater austerity cuts on people least able to tolerate them.
He outrageously corporate written TPP and TTIP trade legislation include "high standards to protect workers, public safety and the environment."
Their provisions are polar opposite. They're anti-consumer, anti-environmental nightmarish bills.
G-7 countries remain "strongly united in support of Ukraine," said Obama. He promised continued political, economic and technical support. He omitted explaining heavy weapons America supplies Kiev to continue waging naked aggression on its own people.
"Russian forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he claimed.
"This is now the second year in a row that the G7 has met without Russia – another example of Russia's isolation – and every member of the G7 continues to maintain sanctions on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine."
Fact: The whole world knows Washington and Kiev partner in waging dirty war without mercy on Donbass Ukrainians rejecting fascism – wanting real democracy.
Fact: It's common knowledge in Western capitals that no "Russian aggression" exists. The Big Lie otherwise drowns out hard truths.
Obama's claim about sanctions hurting Russia are way overblown. EU countries supporting Washington's agenda do so at their own expense.
Russia is strong and resilient. Its partnership with other BRICS countries represents a strong counterweight to G-7 dominance. America's attempt to influence its geopolitical policies failed.
"…Sanctions against Russia will remain in place so long as (it) continues to violate its obligations under the Minsk agreements," Obama blustered.
"Our European partners reaffirmed that they will maintain sanctions on Russia until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented, which means extending the EU's existing sectoral sanctions beyond July."
"And the G7 is making it clear that, if necessary, we stand ready to impose additional, significant sanctions against Russia."
Fact: Russia scrupulously observes all three Ukraine ceasefire agreements – the latest one in February this year.
Fact: Washington and its proxy Kiev junta violated them straightaway – wanting war, not peace.
Blaming Russia irresponsibly for crimes they committed indicates protracted war, increased US saber rattling, more sanctions and other hostile policies risking direct confrontation.
America is the greatest threat to world peace and stability. As long as EU countries go along with its imperial agenda harming their own interests, the unthinkable is possible – the nightmare of potential humanity destroying nuclear war.
With lunatics in charge in Washington, the unthinkable could become reality.
A Final Comment
G-7 countries Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan foolishly yield to US pressure on bashing Russia.
A joint communique following two days of talks said "the duration of sanctions should be clearly linked to Russia's complete implementation of the Minsk agreements and respect for Ukraine's sovereignty."
"(W)e…stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase cost on Russia should its actions so require."
It bears repeating. Russia is wrongfully blamed for US/Kiev high crimes. All G-7 countries know what they won't admit, including America – the greatest threat in history to world peace.
This entry was posted in Russia, Ukraine, USA and tagged Barack Obama, BRICS, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, new Cold War, nuclear war, Plutocracy, Propaganda, sanctions, social justice, US Imperialism, US NATO War Agenda, WWIII on June 10, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
Canada's Harper Government Provides Military Training to Neo-Nazi Ukraine National Guard
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, June 8, 2015
The Canadian media has highlighted Prime Minister Harper's one on one meeting with Ukraine's president Poroshenko in Kiev (June 5, 2015). The official story which has been fed to Canadians is that Ottawa is providing "non-lethal aid" as well support to the country's civilian police force:
"We supply a range of non-lethal military equipment," Harper said… While disappointed about this, Poroshenko praised Canada for supporting Ukraine since "the first hours" of his presidency and said the military aid it had provided to his country, such as medical kits and mobile hospitals, "addressed an acute problem. (National Post, June 6, 2015, emphasis added)
Harper also announced that Canada would be sending 10 police officers to Ukraine to help reform the country's security sector in a partnership with the United States.
Harper announced the $5 million project during a visit in which he watched training exercises by police cadets. … (CP News 24, June 6, 2015, emphasis added)
This story contradicts earlier reports and government statements.
The gist of Harper's flash visit to Kiev prior to the G7 Summit was to reaffirm Canada's commitment to the dispatch of "military instructors" in support of Ukraine's National Guard, which is controlled by the two Neo-Nazi parties, Svoboda and Right Sector.
In April, Washington confirmed that it would send in a US contingent of instructors "of 290 specialists which will be working with the National Guard. Britain has dispatched 75 military personnel responsible for training "in command procedures and tactical intelligence". (Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2015).
Ironically, the Harper government quite candidly acknowledged that there were Neo-Nazi elements within the National Guard, and that provisions were being envisaged to prevent Canadian military instructors from training Neo-Nazis:
The Canadian government is confident that troops from Petawawa won't end up instructing Neo Nazis and far right extremists when they begin their training mission in Ukraine this summer, but a former diplomat is warning it will be difficult to weed out such extremists as their militia units are now being integrated into Ukraine's regular forces.
Some members of Ukraine's most effective fighting units [Azov batallion] have openly acknowledged they are Nazi sympathizers or have expressed anti-Semitic or extreme right wing views. (Ottawa Citizen, April 18, 2015, emphasis added)
The solution proposed by Canada's Defence Minister Kenney is contradictory to say the least: Ottawa will support the National Guard as a means to avoiding the training of Neo-Nazis. Canada's military instructors will be dispatched and allocated to the National Guard:
"We're not going to be in the business of training ad hoc militias… We will only be training units of the Ukrainian National Guard and army recognized by the government of Ukraine." (Ibid, emphasis added)
What is Ukraine's National Guard
The National Guard which is now supported by Canada has been responsible for countless atrocities in the Donbass region.
The wear Nazi insignia on their uniforms.
Below is the Nazi emblem of the National Guard [Національна гвардія України] which is defined as Reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They operate under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The National Guard is part of the so-called "Internal Troops of Ukraine." The emblem is a stylized swastika (see below).
The main battalion of the National Guard under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs involved in the Donbass region is The Azov Battalion (Батальйон Азов).
This battalion is supported by the Western military alliance including Canada.
The Azov Battalion -which displays the Nazi SS emblem– (below left) is described by the Kiev regime as "a volunteer battalion of territorial defense".
It's a National Guard battalion under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Officially based in Berdyank on the Sea of Azov, it was formed by the regime to fight the opposition insurgency in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. It is supported by the US and NATO.
These militia bearing the Nazi SS emblem supported by the US and Canada are casually referred to as "Freedom fighters".
Scroll down for Selected Images of the Azov Battalion "Freedom Fighters"
Imagine what would happen if Canada's RCMP or the US National Guard were to display swastika-like symbols.
Media Disinformation
Unknown to both Americans and Canadians, the West is channeling financial support, weapons and training to a Neo-Nazi entity. Both Washington and Ottawa have sent in military instructors.
Nobody knows about it because the use of the words "Neo-Nazi" and "Fascist" in relation to Ukraine is a taboo. The have been excluded from the lexicon of investigative reporting. In media reports they have been replaced by "Ultra-conservative", "Extreme Right" and "Nationalist".
Ukraine's National Guard –which is supported by Canada– glorifies Adolph Hitler and Stepan Bandera, Ukraine's World War II Nazi leader and collaborator of the Third Reich.
People holding UPA (horizontal red and black) and Svoboda (3 yellow fingers on blue) flags march through Kyiv to the honor of the Nazi ally, Bandera.
See http://revolution-news.com/ukrainian-euromaidan-putin-just-another-fascist-political-coup/
It is worth noting that Ukrainian Jews were the target of the Third Reich's Einsatzgruppen (Task Groups or Deployment Groups) which were supported by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators led by Stepan Bandera . These "task forces" were paramilitary death squads deployed in occupied territories.
Talking about Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, who are part of the coalition government, is a taboo. It is not newsworthy. Yet, the Neo-Nazis play a central role in the country's security apparatus.
Surely Canadians should be made aware of the fact that their government is sending military instructors to train Neo-Nazi recruits.
In contrast to the scanty news which is fed to Canadians, the Ukrainian media's coverage of Harper's visit to Kiev has nonetheless acknowledged Canada's support for the country's National Guard:
Canada will allocate $5 million to train new police officers and military instructors for the National Guard of Ukraine, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatseniuk said.
Besides, Canadian military instructors will arrive to Ukraine to train the National Guard, the premier said. (Interfax-Ukraine, June 6, 2015)
This entry was posted in Canada, Ukraine and tagged Canada training Ukrainian Nazis, fascism, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, Petro Poroshenko, social justice, Stephen Harper, US NATO War Agenda, War Crimes on June 9, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
Ukrainians Dispossessed. Western Financial Elites Impose "Free Markets" and Mass Poverty
Americans are next
By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Over the last 15 months Ukrainians have paid for Washington's overthrow of their elected government in deaths, dismemberment of their country, and broken economic and political relationships with Russia that cost Ukraine its subsidized energy. Now Ukrainians are losing their pensions and traditional support payments. The Ukrainian population is headed for the graveyard.
On June 1 the TASS news agency reported that Ukraine has stopped payments to pensioners, World War II veterans, people with disabilities, and victims of Chernobyl. According to the report, Kiev has also "eliminated transport, healthcare, utilities and financial benefits for former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps and recipients of some Soviet-era orders and titles. Compensations to families with children living in the areas contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl accident will be no longer paid either. Ukraine's parliamentary opposition believes that the Prosecutor General's Office should launch an investigation against Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk who actively promoted the law on the abolition of privileges."
Notice that this is a yank of the blanket from under the elderly in Ukraine. "Useless eaters," they are assigned to the trash can. How do the deceived Maiden student protesters feel now that they are culpable in the destruction of their grandparents' support systems? Do these gullible fools still believe in the Washington-orchestrated Maiden Revolution? The crimes in which these stupid students are complicit are horrific.
Yatsenyuk, or Yats as Victoria Nuland calls him, is the Washington stooge that the US State Department selected to run the puppet government established by Washington. Yats sounds like a right-wing Republican when he refers to pensions, compensations, and social services as "privileges." This is the Republican view of Social Security and Medicare, programs paid for by the payroll tax over the working lives of Americans. The Republicans stole the payroll revenues and spent them on their wars that enrich Wall Street and the military/security complex, and now blame "welfare handouts" for America's fiscal plight.
Is Monsanto's right to turn Ukraine into GMO food production a privilege?
ls VP Biden's son's right to destroy Ukraine's surface and underground water in fracking operations a privilege?
Are the external costs imposed on Ukrainians by these looting activities a privilege?
Of course not! These are not privileges.
This is the operation of free market economics creating the greatest good for the greatest number. (As many Americans will not realize that I am engaging in satire, I would like to affirm that I am.)
The news report does not say whether the abolished "privileges" are one part of a reform that will replace the terminated "privileges" with a new social support system. Possibly this is the case, but as the termination of pensions and payments was triggered by the coming into effect of Yat's law to "stabilize the financial condition of Ukraine," the purpose of the termination of Ukraine's social welfare system might be to free up money to hand over to the IMF and Western banks. In Ukraine, as in Greece, the gullible and naive population that saw salvation in unity with the West will be driven into the ground.
Russia, of course, will be blamed. I can already write the New York Times and Washington Post editorials and the words that will come from Obama, CNN, and Fox "News." In fact, so can my intelligent readers.
The same looting is underway in Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. In Great Britain everything achieved by the Labour Party over many decades has been taken away, and not only by the Conservatives but by Labour leader Tony Blair himself.
Tony Blair sold out his constituents for money and is now among the One Percent. Bill Clinton did the same thing. Bill and Hillary were able to spend $3 million on their daughter's wedding, almost a world record, dwarfing many Hollywood weddings. Obama is not even out of office and is already rich. America's faithful vassals–Merkel, Hollande, and Cameron–can look forward to equal riches.
Karl Marx was correct when he said that money corrupts all. Everything becomes a commodity that is bought and sold for money.
When money becomes the measure of a person, people have become corrupted. And that is the plight of the Western world.
Where in the West is your wealth, small or large, safe? Nowhere. Washington has destroyed financial privacy everywhere in the West. Washington even forced Switzerland to violate its own laws in order to comply with Washington's insistence on the absence of any financial privacy.
For decades Americans with foreign bank accounts have been required to report them on their income tax returns. Now if an American owns a gold coin in a vault overseas, this must be reported to Washington.
Once Washington knows the location of your assets, the assets can be confiscated at will. Washington only has to make some declaration or accusation or the other, and your wealth is gone.
As Washington has run the printing presses hard in order to serve a handful of banks that control the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve, unless China and Russia acquiesce to becoming Washington's vassals, at some point the dollar's value is going to slide downward. When that happens, the Federal Reserve cannot continue to create new money to meet Washington's needs.
Where will the money come from? It will come from Americans' pensions.
Pensions accumulate tax free, and this accumulation will be confiscated in whole or part to make up for the failure to tax, another "privilege."
That confiscation works that year. But what happens the next year when the dollar is reeling on foreign exchange markets from over-supply?
The answer is that another chunk of American pensions, and I am speaking of private pensions, will be confiscated "in order to stabilize the financial system." Social Security will be long gone by this time.
Alicia Munnel, who was my replacement as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Clinton regime, advocated many years ago a confiscation of private pensions, including your IRAs and 401Ks, in order to compensate the US government for their non-taxed status.
Alicia has a sinecure at an Eastern university where she continues to advocate against your pension. The joint attack by Clinton Democrats on private pensions and by Conservative Republicans on public pensions means that no American can look forward to having a pension. Americans are only one presidential election away from the loss of their pensions, and it doesn't matter who they vote for.
Economic security is a thing of the past. Security was a product of the US being the only extant economy following World War II. In those days corporations believed, as did Washington, that companies had obligations not only to shareholders but to employees, customers, and the communities in which they were located.
This meant prosperity for all, not merely, as is the case today, for corporate management and shareholders.
Apologists for exploitation claim that the rich are richer because they are smarter. But the stupidity of the rich is everywhere visible. The greedy fools have destroyed their domestic US market. Really, how stupid can you be? How do Americans buy when they are forced by offshoring out of well paid manufacturing and software engineering jobs into being waitresses, bartenders, retail clerks and part-time Walmart workers in order that corporate bottom lines improve? Who buys the stuff that sustains the profits? Not Americans who no longer have the incomes to do so.
The belief spread by Wall Street and "shareholder advocates" that corporations only have responsibility to their owners and managers has destroyed the American economy.
By locating production offshore, corporations have destroyed the incomes that supported the American consumer market. For example, the incomes associated with the production of Apple computers, I-Pads, and I-Phones are in China. Apple's American customers do not have the incomes associated with the production of the products that Apple markets to them.
Americans are already dispossessed of their livelihoods and careers and their pensions are next. Wherever we look, the fate of populations under Western influence are the same. The Ukrainians are exploited, the Greeks, the British, the Americans.
Wherever the West has an imprint, the populations are exploited. Exploitation of the many for the few is the Hallmark of the West, a decrepit, corrupt, and collapsing entity.
This entry was posted in Global Economy, Ukraine and tagged Austerity Measures, Capitalism, fascism, Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, Pensions, Plutocracy, poverty, social inequality, US Imperialism, Wealth Disparity on June 6, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.
US officials consider nuclear strikes against Russia
By Niles Williamson
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is meeting today at the headquarters of the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany with two dozen US military commanders and European diplomats to discuss how to escalate their economic and military campaign against Russia. They will assess the impact of current economic sanctions, as well as NATO's strategy of exploiting the crisis in eastern Ukraine to deploy ever-greater numbers of troops and military equipment to Eastern Europe, threatening Russia with war.
A US defense official told Reuters that the main purpose of the meeting was to "assess and strategize on how the United States and key allies should think about heightened tensions with Russia over the past year." The official also said Carter was open to providing the Ukrainian regime with lethal weapons, a proposal which had been put forward earlier in the year.
Most provocatively, a report published by the Associated Press yesterday reports that the Pentagon has been actively considering the use of nuclear missiles against military targets inside Russia, in response to what it alleges are violations of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Russia denies US claims that it has violated the INF by flight-testing ground-launched cruise missiles with a prohibited range.
Three options being considered by the Pentagon are the placement of anti-missile defenses in Europe aimed at shooting Russian missiles out of the sky; a "counterforce" option that would involve pre-emptive non-nuclear strikes on Russia military sites; and finally, "countervailing strike capabilities," involving the pre-emptive deployment of nuclear missiles against targets inside Russia.
The AP states: "The options go so far as one implied—but not stated explicitly—that would improve the ability of US nuclear weapons to destroy military targets on Russian territory." In other words, the US is actively preparing nuclear war against Russia.
Robert Scher, one of Carter's nuclear policy aides, told Congress in April that the deployment of "counterforce" measures would mean "we could go about and actually attack that missile where it is in Russia."
According to other Pentagon officials, this option would entail the deployment of ground-launched cruise missiles throughout Europe.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Skewers told AP, "All the options under consideration are designed to ensure that Russia gains no significant military advantage from their violation."
The criminality and recklessness of the foreign policy of Washington and its NATO allies is staggering. A pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russian forces, many of them near populated areas, could claim millions of lives in seconds and lead to a nuclear war that would obliterate humanity. Even assuming that the US officials threatening Russia do not actually want such an outcome, however, and that they are only trying to intimidate Moscow, there is a sinister objective logic to such threats.
Nuclear warmongering by US officials immensely heightens the danger of all-out war erupting accidentally, amid escalating military tensions and strategic uncertainty. NATO forces are deploying for military exercises all around Russia, from the Arctic and Baltic Seas to Eastern Europe and the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Regional militaries are all on hair-trigger alerts.
US officials threatening Russia cannot know how the Kremlin will react to such threats. With Moscow concerned about the danger of a sudden NATO strike, Russia is ever more likely to respond to perceived signs of NATO military action by launching its missiles, fearing that otherwise the missiles will be destroyed on the ground. The danger of miscalculations and miscommunications leading to all-out war is immensely heightened.
The statements of Scher and Carter confirm warnings made last year by the WSWS, that NATO's decision to back a fascist-led putsch in Kiev in February, and to blame Russia without any evidence for shooting down flight MH17, posed the risk of war. "Are you ready for war—including possibly nuclear war—between the United States, Europe, and Russia? That is the question that everyone should be asking him- or herself in light of the developments since the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17," the WSWS wrote .
In March, Putin stated that he had placed Russian forces, including its nuclear forces, on alert in the aftermath of the Kiev putsch, fearing a NATO attack on Russia. Now the threat of war arising from US policy has been confirmed directly by statements of the US military.
These threats have developed largely behind the backs of the world working class. Workers in the United States, Europe and worldwide have time and again shown their hostility to US wars in Iraq or in Afghanistan. Yet nearly 15 years after these wars began, the world stands on the brink of an even bloodier and more devastating conflict, and the media and ruling elites the world over are hiding the risk of nuclear war.
US President Barack Obama is expected to escalate pressure on Russia at the G7 summit this weekend, pressing European leaders to maintain economic sanctions put in place in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea last year. The latest outbreak in violence in Ukraine this week, which the US blames on Russia, is to serve as a pretext for continuing the sanctions.
Speaking to Parliament on Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned of a "colossal threat of the resumption of large-scale hostilities by Russian and terrorist forces." He claimed without proof that 9,000 Russian soldiers are deployed in rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine.
"Ukraine's military should be ready for a new offensive by the enemy, as well as a full-scale invasion along the entire border with the Russian Federation," Poroshenko said. "We must be really prepared for this." He said the Ukrainian army had at least 50,000 soldiers stationed in the east, prepared to defend the country.
Poroshenko's remarks came a day after renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine between Kiev forces and Russian-backed separatists resulted in dozens of casualties. This week's fighting marked the largest breach to date of the cease-fire signed in February.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia believed the previous day's hostilities had been provoked by Kiev to influence upcoming discussions at the G7 summit this weekend and the EU summit in Brussels at the end of the month. "These provocative actions are organized by Ukraine's military forces, and we are concerned with that," he stated.
Each side blamed the other for initiating fighting in Marinka, approximately nine miles west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Yuriy Biryukov, an adviser to Poroshenko, reported on Thursday that five Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the fighting, and another 39 wounded. Eduard Basurin, deputy defense minister and spokesman for the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), told Interfax that 16 rebel fighters and five civilians had been killed.
Ukrainian forces also fired artillery at the rebel-held city of Donetsk on Wednesday. Shells landed in the southwest districts of Kirovsky and Petrovsky, killing 6 people and wounding at least 90 others. The city's Sokol market was severely damaged, with several rows of shops burned to the ground.
Responding to Wednesday's developments, members of the fascistic Right Sector militia have been called to mobilize for battle. Andrey Stempitsky, commander of the militia's paramilitary battalion, posted a message on Facebook calling on those who went home during the cease-fire to "return to their combat units." He warned that the Right Sector would "wage war, ignoring the truce devotees."
This entry was posted in Russia, Ukraine, USA and tagged Government Corruption, human rights, Media Disinformation, nuclear war, Plutocracy, social justice, US Imperialism, US NATO War Agenda, WWIII on June 5, 2015 by newsfortherevolution.