The Ukrainian Pendulum. Two Invasions and a Putsch. American Special Forces in Ukraine under Cover
1. Two Invasions
The stakes are high in the
Ukraine: after the coup, as Crimea and Donbas asserted their right to
self determination, American and Russian troops entered Ukrainian
territory, both under cover.
The American soldiers are
“military advisors”, ostensibly members of Blackwater private army
(renamed Academi); a few hundred of them patrol Kiev while others try to
suppress the revolt in Donetsk. Officially, they were invited by the
new West-installed regime. They are the spearhead of the US invasion
attempting to prop up the regime and break down all resistance. They
have already bloodied their hands in Donetsk.
Besides, the Pentagon has
doubled the number of US fighter jets on a NATO air patrol mission in
the Baltics; the US air carrier entered the Black Sea, some US Marines
reportedly landed in Lvov “as a part of pre-planned manoeuvres”.
The Russian soldiers ostensibly
belong to the Russian Fleet, legally stationed in Crimea. They were in
Crimea before the coup, in accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian treaty
(like the US 5th fleet in Kuwait), but their presence was
probably beefed up. Additional Russian troops were invited in by deposed
but legitimately elected President Yanukovych (compare this with the US
landing on Haiti in support of the deposed President Aristide ). They
help the local pro-Russian militia maintain order, and no one gets
killed in the process. In addition, Russia brought its troops on alert
and returned a few warships to the Black Sea.
It is only the Russian presence
which is described as an “invasion” by the Western media, while the
American one is hardly mentioned. ”We have a moral duty to stick our
nose in your business in your backyard a world away from our homeland.
It’s for your own good”, wrote an ironic American blogger.
Moscow woke up to trouble in
Ukraine after its preoccupation, nay obsession, with the Winter Olympic
games had somewhat abated, — when people began to say that “Putin won
the games and lost the Ukraine”. Indeed, while Putin watched sports in
Sochi, the Brown Revolution succeeded in Ukraine. A great European
country the size of France, the biggest republic of the former USSR
(save Russia), was taken over by a coalition of Ukrainian
ultra-nationalists and (mainly Jewish) oligarchs. The legitimate
president was forced to flee for his very life. Members of Parliament
were manhandled, and in some cases their children were taken hostage to
ensure their vote, as their houses were visited by gunmen. The putsch
was completed. The West recognised the new government; Russia refused to
recognise it, but continued to deal with it on a day -to-day basis.
However the real story is now developing in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, a
story of resistance to the pro-Western takeover.
2. The Putsch
The economic situation of
Ukraine is dreadful. They are where Russia was in the 1990s, before
Putin – in Ukraine the Nineties never ended. For years the country was
ripped off by the oligarchs who siphoned off profits to Western banks,
bringing it to the very edge of the abyss. To avoid default and
collapse, the Ukraine was to receive a Russian loan of 15 billion euros
without preconditions, but then came the coup. Now the junta’s prime
minister will be happy to receive a mere one billion dollars from the US
via IMF. (Europeans have promised more, but in a few years’ time…) He
already accepted the conditions of the IMF, which will mean austerity,
unemployment and debt bondage. Probably this was the raison d’être for
the coup. IMF and US loans are a major source of profit for the
financial community, and they are used to enslave debtor countries, as Perkins explained at length.
The oligarchs who financed the
Maidan operation divided the spoils: the most generous supporter,
multi-billionaire Igor “Benya” Kolomoysky, received the great
Russian-speaking city of Dnepropetrovsk in fief. He was not required to
give up his Israeli passport. His brethren oligarchs took other
Russian-speaking industrial cities, including Kharkov and Donetsk, the
Ukrainian Chicago or Liverpool. Kolomoysky is not just an ‘oligarch of
Jewish origin’: he is an active member of the Jewish community, a
supporter of Israel and a donor of many synagogues, one of them the
biggest in Europe. He had no problem supporting the neo-Nazis, even
those whose entry to the US had been banned because of their declared
antisemitism. That is why the appeals to Jewish consciousness against
the Brown putsch demonstrably failed.
Now came the nationalists’
crusade against Russian-speakers (ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking
Ukrainians – the distinction is moot), chiefly industrial workers of
East and South of the country. The Kiev regime banned the Communist
Party and the Regions’ Party (the biggest party of the country, mainly
supported by the Russian-speaking workers). The regime’s first decree
banned the Russian language from schools, radio and TV, and forbade all
official use of Russian. The Minister of Culture called Russian-speakers
“imbeciles” and proposed to jail them for using the banned tongue in
public places. Another decree threatened every holder of dual
Russian/Ukrainian nationality with a ten-years jail sentence, unless he
gives up the Russian one right away.
Not empty words, these threats:
The storm-troopers of the Right Sector, the leading fighting force of
the New Order, went around the country terrorising officials, taking
over government buildings, beating up citizens, destroying Lenin’s
statues, smashing memorials of the Second World War and otherwise
enforcing their rule A video showed
a Right Sector fighter mistreating the city attorney while police
looked other way. They began to hunt down riot policemen who supported
the ex-president, and they burned down a synagogue or two. They tortured
a governor, and lynched some technicians they found in the former
ruling party’s headquarters. They started to take over the Orthodox
churches of the Russian rite, intending to transfer them to their own
Greek-Catholic Church.
The instructions of US State
Dept.’s Victoria Nuland were followed through: the Ukraine had had the
government she prescribed in the famous telephone conversation with the
US Ambassador. Amazingly, while she notoriously gave “fuck” to the EU,
she did not give a fuck about the Russian view of Ukraine’s immediate
future.
Russia was not involved in
Ukrainian developments: Putin did not want to be accused of meddling in
Ukrainian internal affairs, even when the US and EU envoys assisted and
directed the rebels. The people of Russia would applaud him if he were
to send his tanks to Kiev to regain the whole of Ukraine, as they
consider it an integral part of Russia. But Putin is not a Russian
nationalist, not a man of Imperial designs. Though he would like the
Ukraine to be friendly to Russia, annexing it, in whole or in part, has
never been his ambition. It would be too expensive even for wealthy
Russia: the average income in the Ukraine is just half of the Russian
one, and tits infrastructure is in a shambles. (Compare to the very
costly West German takeover of the GDR.) It would not be easy, either,
for every Ukrainian government in the past twenty years has drenched the
people with anti-Russian sentiment. But involvement was forced upon
Putin:
Hundreds of thousands of
Ukrainians voted with their feet and fled to Russia, asking for asylum.
Two hundred thousand refugees checked in during the weekend. The only
free piece of land in the whole republic was the city of Sevastopol, the
object of a French and British siege in 1852 and of a German siege in
1941, and the home base of the Russian Black Sea fleet. This heroic city
did not surrender to the Kiev emissaries, though even here some local
deputies were ready to submit. And at that last moment, the people began
their resistance. The awful success of the putsch was the beginning of its undoing. The pendulum of Ukraine, forever swinging between East and West, began its return movement.
3. The Rising
The people of Crimea rose,
dismissed their compromise-seeking officials and elected a new leader,
Mr Sergey Aksyonov. The new leadership assumed power, took over Crimea
and asked for Russian troops to save them from the impending attack by
the Kiev storm troopers. It does not seem to have been necessary at this
stage: there were plenty of Crimeans ready to defend their land from
the Brown invaders, there were Cossack volunteers and there is the
Russian Navy stationed in Crimea by treaty. Its Marines would probably
be able to help the Crimeans in case of trouble. The Crimeans, with some
Russian help, manned the road blocks on the narrow isthmus that
connects Crimea to the mainland.
The parliament of Crimea voted to join Russia, but this vote should be confirmed by a
poll on March 16 to determine Crimea’s future — whether it will revert
to Russia or remain an autonomous republic within the Ukraine. From my
conversation with locals, it seems that they would prefer to join the
Russian Federation they left on Khrushchev’s orders only a half century
ago. Given the Russian-language issue and the consanguinity, this makes
sense: Ukraine is broke, Russia is solvent and ready to assume its
protection. Ukraine can’t pay salaries and pensions, Russia had promised
to do so. Kiev was taking away the lion’s share of income generated in
Crimea by Russian tourists; now the profits will remain in the peninsula
and presumably help repair the rundown infrastructure. Real estate
would likely rise drastically in price, optimistic natives surmise, and
this view is shared by Russian businessmen. They already say that Crimea
will beat out Sochi in a few years’ time, as drab old stuff will be
replaced by Russian Imperial chic.
Perhaps Putin would prefer the
Crimea gain independence, like Kosovo, or even remain under a token
Ukrainian sovereignty, as Taiwan is still nominally part of China. It
could become a showcase pro-Russian Ukraine to allow other Ukrainians to
see what they’re missing, as West Berlin was for the East Germans
during the Cold War. Regaining Crimea would be nice, but not at the
price of having a consolidated and hostile Ukraine for a neighbour.
Still Putin will probably have no choice but to accept the people’s
decision.
There was an attempt to play the
Crimean Tatars against the Russians; apparently it failed. Though the
majlis, their self-appointed organisation, supports Kiev, the elders
spoke up for neutrality. There are persistent rumours that the colourful
Chechen leader Mr Kadyrov, a staunch supporter of Mr Putin, had sent
his squads to the Tatars to strong-arm them into dropping their
objections to Crimea’s switch to Russia. At the beginning, the Tatars
supported Kiev, and even tried to prevent the pro-Russian takeover. But
these wise people are born survivors, they know when to adjust their
attitudes, and there is no doubt they will manage just fine.
Russian Nazis, as anti-Putin as
Ukrainian Nazis, are divided: some support a “Russian Crimea” whilst
others prefer pro-European Kiev. They are bad as enemies, but even worse
as friends: the supportive Nazis try to wedge between Russians and
Ukrainians and Tatars, and they hate to see that Kadyrov’s Chechnya
actually helps Russian plans, for they are anti-Chechen and try to
convince people that Russia is better off without Chechens, a warlike
Muslim tribe.
As Crimea defied orders from
Kiev, it became a beacon for other regions of the Ukraine. Donbas, the
coal and steel region, raised Russian banners and declared its desire
for self-determination, “like Crimea”. They do want to join a
Russian-led Customs Union; it is not clear whether they would prefer
independence, autonomy or something else, but they, too, scheduled a
poll – for March 30. There were big demonstrations against the Kiev
regime in Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and other Russian-speaking
cities. Practically everywhere, the deputies seek accommodation with
Kiev and look for a way to make some profit, but the people do not
agree. They are furious and do not accept the junta.
The Kiev regime does not accept
their quest for freedom. A popularly-elected Mayor of Donetsk was
kidnapped by the Ukrainian security forces and taken to Kiev. There are
now violent demonstrations in the city.
The Ukrainian navy in the Black
Sea switched its allegiance from Kiev to Crimea, and they were followed
by some units of the air force with dozens of fighter jets and ground
troops. Troops loyal to Kiev were blocked off by the Crimeans, but there
was no violence in this peaceful transfer of power.
The junta appointed an oligarch
to rule Donbas, Mr Sergey Taruta, but he had difficulty assuming power
as the local people did not want him, and with good reason: Taruta had
bought the major Polish port of Gdansk and brought it to bankruptcy.
It seems he is better at siphoning capital away than in running serious
business. Ominously, Mr Taruta brought with him some unidentified,
heavily armed security personnel, reportedly guns-for-hire from
Blackwater (a.k.a. Academi) fresh from Iraq and Afghanistan. He will
need a lot more of them if he wants to take Donbas by force.
In Kharkov, the biggest Eastern
city, erstwhile capital of Soviet Ukraine, local people ejected the
raiding force of the Right Sector from government offices, but police
joined with the oligarchs. While the fake revolution took place in Kiev
under the tutelage of US and EC envoys, the real revolution is taking
place now, and its future is far from certain.
The Ukraine hasn’t got much of
an army, as the oligarchs stole everything ever assigned to the
military. The Kiev regime does not rely on its army anyway. Their
attempt to draft able-bodied men failed immediately as hardly anybody
answered the call. They still intend to squash the revolution. Another
three hundred Blackwater mercenaries landed Wednesday in Kiev airport.
The Kiev regime applied for NATO help and expressed its readiness to
allow US missiles to be stationed in the Ukraine. Missiles in the
Ukraine (as now stationed in Poland, also too close for Russian comfort)
would probably cross Russia’s red line, just as Russian missiles in
Cuba crossed America’s red line in 1962. Retired Israeli intelligence
chief Yaakov Kedmi, an expert on Russia, said that in his view the
Russians just can’t allow that, at any price, even if this means all-out
war.
Putin asked the upper house of
the Russian parliament for permission to deploy Russian troops if
needed, and the parliament unanimously approved his request. They will
probably be deployed in order to defend the workers in case of attack by
a Right Sector beefed up by Blackwater mercenaries. Humanitarian
catastrophe, large-scale disturbances, the flow of refugees or the
arrival of NATO troops could also force Putin’s hand, even against his
will.
4. The President in exile
President Yanukovych will be
historically viewed as a weak, tragic figure, and he deserves a better
pen with a more leisured pace than mine. He tried his best to avoid
casualties, though he faced a full-scale revolt led by very violent
Brown storm-troopers. And still he was blamed for killing some eighty
people, protesters and policemen.
Some of the victims were killed
by the Right Sector as they stormed the ruling party offices. The
politicians left the building well in advance, but the secretarial staff
remained behind — many women, janitors and suchlike. An engineer named
Vladimir Zakharov went to the besieging rebels and asked them to let the
women out. They killed him on the spot with their bats. Another man was
burned alive.
But the majority of casualties
were victims of sniper fire, also blamed on Yanukovych. The Kiev regime
even asked the Hague tribunal to indict the President as they had
President Milosevic. But now, a telephone conversation
between EC representative Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign
Minister Urmas Paet reveals that the EC emissaries were aware that
dozens of victims of sniper fire at the Maidan were killed by Maidan
rebel supporters, and not by police or by President Yanukovych, as they
claimed. Urmas Paet acknowledged the veracity of this conversation at a
press conference, and called for an independent enquiry. It turned out
that the rebel snipers shot and killed policemen and Maidan protesters
alike, in order to shed blood and blame it on the President.
This appears to be a staple
feature of the US-arranged revolutions. Snipers killing both protesters
and police were reported in Moscow’s 1991 and 1993 revolutions, as well
as in many other cases. Some sources claim that famed Israeli snipers
were employed on such occasions, which is plausible in view of Mr
Kolomoysky’s Israeli connection. A personal friend of Mr Kolomoysky,
prominent member of the then-opposition, Parliamentarian and present
head of administration Sergey Pashinsky was stopped by police as he removed a sniper’s rifle with a silencer from the scene of murder. This discovery was briefly reported in the New York Times,
but later removed. This revelation eliminates (or at least seriously
undermines) the case against the President. Probably it will be
disappear down the memory hole and be totally forgotten, as were the Seymour Hersh revelations about Syria’s sarin attack.
Another revelation was made by
President Putin at his press-conference of March 4, 2014. He said that
he convinced (read: forced) President Yanukovych to sign his agreement
of February 21, 2014 with the opposition, as Western ministers had
demanded. By this agreement, or actually capitulation act, the Ukrainian
President agreed to all the demands of the Brown rebels, including
speedy elections for the Parliament and President. However, the
agreement did not help: the rebels tried to kill Yanukovych that same
night as he travelled to Kharkov.
Putin expressed amazement that
they were not satisfied with the agreement and proceeded with the coup
anyway. The reason was provided by Right Sector goons: they said that
their gunmen will be stationed by every election booth and that they
would count the vote. Naturally, the agreement did not allow for that,
and the junta had every reason to doubt their ability to win honest
elections.
It appears Yanukovych hoped to
establish a new power base in Kharkov, where a large assembly of
deputies from East and South of Ukraine was called in advance. The
assembly, says Mr Kolomoysky, was asked to assume powers and support the
President, but the deputies refused. That is why President Yanukovych,
with great difficulty, escaped to Russia. His landing in Rostov made
quite an impression on people as his plane was accompanied by fighter
jets.
Yanukovych tried to contact
President Putin, but the Russian president did not want to leave the
impression that he wants to force Yanukovych on the people of Ukraine,
and refused to meet or to speak with him directly. Perhaps Putin had no
time to waste on such a weak figure, but he publicly recognised him
anyway as the legitimate President of the Ukraine. This made sense, as
President Yanukovych requested Russian troops to bring peace to his
country. He still may make a comeback – as the president of a Free
Ukraine, if such should ever be formed in some part of the country, – or
as the protagonist of an opera.
[English language editing by Ken Freeland]
Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net
Israel Shamir can be reached on adam@israelshamir.net
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