John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

“Russia-Ukraine crisis – live: Kiev declares martial law as world powers call emergency meetings after Putin’s forces seize ships near Crimea”

 

Poroshenko is pathetic. Declaring martial law is a very serious matter in any society, and doing so just because a neighboring country stopped a group of ships off-course in a sensitive region makes no sense at all.

This declaration is really about the coming election in Ukraine and the likelihood, from polls, that Poroshenko is going to lose it badly. He is very unpopular, as we might expect with the basket-case his government has made of Ukraine since the coup.

Nothing like a good dose of fear to make people less likely to vote for change.

This was clearly a created incident.

The Ukrainian ships went where they knew they were not supposed to go.

They did not follow instructions of Russian Border Services.

Now, what kind of reaction will that earn you anywhere, most certainly including Britain?

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Response to a reader who said “The West, by supporting this scumbag either out of natural stupidity or prejudice, plays right into his hands”:

Well, “the West” has behaved stupidly from the start.

First, by even going along with the American-induced coup against an elected government in Ukraine.

We know from ugly big-mouth, Victoria Nuland, American Neocon figure and former State Department official, that the US spent $5 billion on the project to destabilize Ukraine.

And “the West” completely tolerates the open displays of fascism in Ukraine by a number of ugly outfits – things like torch-light parades with Nazi-like symbols and some terrible words.

This whole American project was for the purpose of threatening Russia on a major border, a simply downright stupid act against a nuclear super-power.

This Ukrainian government has sent its own country into a tailspin, too. There have been major out-migrations of Ukrainians to other countries willing to accept them. The Ukrainian economy is in decline. Its trade is in decline. Civil War was needlessly started over language and cultural rights, resulting in the separation of regions. Everyone inside and outside the country is aware of large-scale corruption. There has been complete government paralysis in moving even an inch forward with the internationally-agreed Minsk Accords for peace in the country. I don’t think it would be possible to create a worse government.

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For some perspective on this incident in the Kerch Strait, let’s remember what unarmed people – even women and children – receive just approaching the Israeli fence around Gaza.

A bullet in the head. A shattered leg. A blown-off foot.

More than 200 have been killed by Israel’s cowardly snipers, and many thousands wounded.

None of them armed. None of them ever setting foot on Israeli territory.

By contrast, here near Crimea, there were actually minimal problems despite the facts that the Ukrainian ships were well-armed and were definitely in the wrong location.

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Additional notes.

At least one Ukrainian official has claimed Russia used a missile from a fighter plane on one of the ships.

Well, first, we have quite a number of photos of the incident, and no missile damage is to be seen.

And there is no evidence of large numbers of crew members being hurt or killed, as there very much would be from a modern anti-ship missile. Instead, we have reports of just a few Ukrainians sustaining injuries in resisting Russian Border Services and receiving medical treatment.

Of course, the ships were brought to port by the Russians, something that wouldn’t be possible after a missile attack.

I think the bizarre nature of such a claim, despite much contrary evidence, tells us a good deal about the chaotic nature of Ukraine’s current politics and internal affairs.

Russia also reports that at least one Ukrainian intelligence service member was on board one of the ships. Just what you’d expect to find on a ship innocently straying off-course, is it not?

Readers should keep in mind that the Russians are very much on-guard for the Kerch Strait Bridge. Some idiotic Ukrainian politicians have actually openly advocated attacking it with explosives.

And it is a magnificent piece of engineering which provides daily testimony to Russia’s determination and creativity in a difficult situation.

Since Ukraine – whether individuals or the state, we don’t know – employed many deliberate obstacles and instances of sabotage against people on the Crimean Peninsula after their votes to leave Ukraine and join Russia, the bridge has become far more than just a symbol too.

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I see in this morning’s CBC News the headline: “Canada condemns Russian aggression in clash with Ukraine.” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland condemned Russia’s seizing three Ukrainian naval vessels near Crimea. The article offers no opportunity to comment.

Freeland has been an embarrassment as Foreign Minister on a number of files, and she has always been ready to jump with both feet into Russian affairs she likely doesn’t even fully understand.

She’s proven a genuine Russophobe which I suppose is understandable given her growing up in a Ukrainian-Canadian family, the kind of families I know from experience often display narrow hostility towards Russia.

Well, that’s a shame, Russia being an increasingly important country and one trying as it never did in the days of the Soviet Union to be open and ready to do business with everyone, but it’s her own business so long as she’s not Canada’s Foreign Minister.

But she is Foreign Minister, and she has no business making statements like this, whose only purpose is to serve the Russophobia insanity gripping the United States. She makes Canada look petty and small and not well-informed.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

 

Partly caused? Well, William Perry was always a cautious man and he is not going say the things which would make him persona non grata in his own land.

Please, Putin and his key staff, such as Foreign Minister Lavrov, are amiable, gifted, and very civil people. They had no motive for any hostilities, looking forward to increased trade and cooperation with the west. They have reacted only to America’s extremely hostile acts.

The Ukraine coup was engineered and paid for by the CIA. We even known the dollar amount, thanks to the State Department’s most bizarre neocon, the close-to-incompetent Victoria Nuland, a hateful person inexplicably put in charge of this file who has offended just about every senior person involved.

The coup was a flagrant challenge and insult to Russia, much comparable to Russia’s doing the same in Mexico. You only have to imaging how Washington would react to that. I can almost guarantee the reaction would not show the same restraint. In a way, the insult is even worse because Ukraine and Russia have such an ancient common history with many connections.

The coup toppled a democratically-elected government, but that is nothing new for the CIA. It has toppled many democratic governments in the past, including Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s.

It is a bit stunning that Obama would support this kind of thuggery, but it is pretty clear in this and other cases – Syria or Libya, for example – that he is pretty much a prisoner of the ongoing unelected government in Washington, the massive defence/security apparatus. Either that or Obama is much more like Dick Cheney in temperament than any of us would have guessed years ago.

The government installed in Ukraine has proved a disaster for the country and its people. Right-wing thugs, like the Azov Battalion, run loose in the country, threatening even its coup-installed government. (Here again, imagine Russia arming and supporting American malcontents such as the Minutemen or Aryan Church?) The new government is divided and has made a long series of incompetent and destructive decisions.

It attacked Russian-speaking portions of the country, creating a civil war in which thousands have died, and even tried making their language illegal. Its armed forces are so badly led and incompetent they could not prevail against a much smaller enemy. When Ukraine tried raising more troops in Western Ukraine by conscription, there were massive run-aways.

And for those who’ve studied the case carefully, there isn’t a doubt that Ukraine’s poorly-led and incompetent armed forces shot-down MH-17. Believe me, if it had really been the Russians, there would have been a storm from Washington, including the release of American radar and satellite data, which have not been released to this day. The Dutch investigators are working under immense American pressure to creep along at a snail’s pace and let time do its work in forgetfulness. Of course, had the world early discovered what really happened, America’s coup-installed government likely would have collapsed immediately.

At the same time as generating all this hostility, the US has increased its armed forces near Russia’s borders, pushed Europeans to do the same, provocatively staged huge war games, and initiated a long series of completely unwarranted anti-Russian economic sanctions. The truth is, almost certainly, all this violence and fear-mongering represents a studied effort to separate Russia from Europe in what had been a growing friendly and economically beneficial set of relationships. It represents a harsh declaration that Europe is more or less American territory, and the ineffective current leaders of Europe don’t seem even capable of saying no.

It is all shameful, and I am sorry Europe’s major countries are today so poorly led that they support America’s dirty work without objection.