The Ukrainian crisis is very profitable for many.

Hunter Biden, the son of United States Vice President Joe Biden, was recently elected to the board of the largest natural gas company in Ukraine. Hunter is also on the Chairman’s Advisory Board for the National Democratic Institute, an organization connected with regime change and propping up questionable elections.[i] With Joe Biden himself at the Kiev regime’s inauguration of President Poroshenko on June 7 and very supportive of the Maidan coup, all of this is connected.

Given the years of planning and work that culminated in the coup and installation of the regime government, these are the profitable results for those in the know and with the power to control the system. This article is a shocking demonstration of how power can sweep away rules, procedures, and citizens’ rights, as well as any regard for the environment.

These are the new Huns. This is about rape and pillage. American citizens seem deaf and blind to their own government’s predatory and destructive actions, content to believe lies about Russian aggression instead of the truth.

Will people wake up before there is nothing left?

From Zero Hedge, 7/25/2014:

Company In Which Joe Biden’s Son Is Director Prepares To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine

Submitted by Tyler Durden

Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, “is all about energy.”

Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine’s shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.

Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. From the press release:

R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

R. Hunter Biden is also a well-known public figure. He is chairman of the Board of the World Food Programme U.S.A., together with the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Programme. In this capacity he offers assistance to the poor in developing countries, fighting hunger and poverty, and helping to provide food and education to 300 million malnourished children around the world.

Company Background: 

Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins. In 2013, the daily gas production grew steadily and at year-end amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrels of oil equivalent – incl. gas, condensate and crude oil), or 1.8 million m3 of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market through traders, as well as directly to final consumers.

Now put it all together and what happens next should be rather clear.

* * *

Still confused? It’s very simple, really.

In a nutshell Ukraine (or rather its puppetmasters) has decided to let no crisis (staged or otherwise) or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass. The reason for the scramble? Under peacetime, the process was expected to take many years, during which Europe would be under the energy dictatorship of Putin. But throw in some civil war and few will notice let alone care that a process which was expected to take nearly a decade if not longer while dealing with broad popular objections to fracking, may instead be completed in months!

“Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.

The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.

Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.

Not only them but also all-important Germany, which two weeks ago announced it would halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over groundwater pollution concerns.

Which clearly makes Ukraine, potentially the last place with massive shale gas deposits and no drilling ban, quite valuable to those who want to develop a major source of shale gas, one which reduces Europe’s reliance on Russian gas even more, yet one whose future depends on one simple question: who controls East Ukraine?

Because what better way to accelerate “next steps” than to start drilling for gas in the middle of the Donetsk republic as a civil war is waging in all directions, and where public mood has shifted decidedly against the local “separatists” in the aftermath of the MH-17 tragedy.

The punchline: who will develop the gas field in conjunction with Shell (jointly owned by the Netherlands and the UK: the two countries that loathe Putin the most in the aftermath of the MH-17 disaster) which in May 2012 announced a tender for the right to develop the Yuzovka shale gas deposit?

Burisma, Ukraine’s oil and gas production holdings, also has the right to develop the shale gas fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk basin of Eastern Ukraine. The same Burisma where R. Hunter Biden, Joseph’s son, was appointed a director two months ago.

Q.E.D.

Source:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-25/company-which-joe-bidens-son-director-prepares-drill-shale-gas-east-Ukraine

Posted under Fair Use Rules.

———————————————————————————————–

[i] http://www.globalresearch.ca/target-ukraine-how-foreign-intervention-is-tearing-the-country-apart/5371613
Target: Ukraine – How Foreign Intervention is Tearing the Country Apart

As The Guardian noted at the time of the protests:

“[…]the campaign [Orange Revolution] is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.[…]The Democratic parrty’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros’s open society institute.”

Los Angeles Times report, Aug. 25, 2014

Excerpt:

Ukraine’s newly inaugurated president dissolved the contentious parliament  Monday and set early elections for Oct. 26 in a move that will probably put further pressure on the country’s east-west divide.

President Petro Poroshenko had promised during his spring electoral campaign to resolve the standoff between parliamentary deputies of his coalition and the loyalists of former President Viktor Yanukovich, who was deposed by a pro-Western rebellion in late February.

The act of dissolving the Supreme Council was announced by Poroshenko on the presidential website late Monday and reported by the Ukrinform news agency.

…Ukraine’s newly inaugurated president dissolved the contentious parliament  Monday and set early elections for Oct. 26 in a move that will probably put further pressure on the country’s east-west divide.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-parliament-election-20140825-story.html
Ukraine president dissolves parliament, sets Oct. 26 election

Also:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/ukraine-president-petro-poroshenko-election-october
Ukraine president calls snap election as he prepares for Putin meeting

And yet as we gather here today, we know that this vision is threatened by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It is a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent European nation. It challenges that most basic of principles of our international system, that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun, that nations have the right to determine their own future. It undermines an international order where the rights of peoples and nations are upheld and can’t simply be taken away by brute force. This is what’s at stake in Ukraine. This is why we stand with the people of Ukraine today.

Now, let’s put to rest once and for all the distortions or outdated thinking that has caused this crisis. ..

The protests in Ukraine on the Maidan were not led by neo-Nazis of fascists. They were led by ordinary Ukrainians, men and women, young and old who were fed up with a corrupt regime and who wanted to share in the progress and prosperity that they see in the rest of Europe. And they did not engage in an armed seizure of power.

After an agreement was brokered for constitutional reform, the former president then abandoned his office, and parliament endorsed new elections, so that today Ukrainians have a new democratically elected president. And I look forward to welcoming President Poroshenko to the Oval Office this month. He was chosen by the people of Ukraine. It was not the government of Kiev that destabilized eastern Ukraine. It’s been the pro-Russian separatists who are encouraged by Russia, financed by Russia, trained by Russia, supplied by Russia and armed by Russia. And the Russian forces that have now moved into Ukraine are not on a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission. They are Russian combat forces with Russian weapons in Russian tanks.

Now, these are the facts. They are provable. They’re not subject to dispute.

No, Mr. President. The facts are in complete contradiction to those words. And they are very provable.

The brazen assault is on truth and freedom by you and the U.S. government.

Pity the poor country that believes this speech.

This is the transcript of the speech President Barack Obama gave at
Nordea Concert Hall, Taallinn,Estonia, on September 3, 2014
as reported in the Wall Street Journal, 9-3-14

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/09/03/obama-transcript-nato-will-defend-estonia-latvia-lithuania/

Obama Transcript: NATO Will Defend Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

President Barack Obama pledged Wednesday that NATO would defend its Baltic allies as he called for a united stand against Russia’s aggression and laid blame for escalating clashes in Ukraine squarely on Moscow. Here is the full transcript of his speech, as provided by Federal News Service (www.fednews.com). Continue reading →

From Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) anna-news.info

Posted on Global Research, September 4, 2014

We bring to the consideration of GR readers an important video interview.

Unnamed sources in the Kiev government have leaked the Junta’s intent to use chemical weapons against the people of Donbass.

The last time “Strelkov” warned about a similar occurrence, a few days later Kiev forces attacked a chemical plant.

Fortunately, the missiles and rockets which were fired by Kiev forces missed their target.

Had they succeeded, this would have resulted in countless deaths.

Interview with Alexander Ivanovich Zhilin, journalist and military expert on Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA News)’s program called “Actually”. The subtitles are in German. An English transcript is available below.

“If we do everything we can now to make this information widely known, then we will pull the rug from under the Kiev Junta”

Below is a translation (English) of this important ANNA News interview.

ANNA News host: Alexander Ivanovich, you have something to say to the people, we are giving you this opportunity.

Alexander Ivanovich: Thank you very much. I would like to ask journalists, politicians and the people a favor. Please defend Ukraine. I’m asking you to defend it like a territory in which it is still possible to live. Yesterday around 3 am Moscow time, we received confirmation from Kiev that a sinister provocation was in preparation. The United States of America are trying to use chemical weapons in Donbass with the help of fascists [Kiev forces]. They will try to use these weapons in the following manner ….

SCROLL DOWN FOR COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT (English)

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/_Ov8ysmIhi8″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ov8ysmIhi8

TRANSCRIPT  (English)

ANNA News host: Alexander Ivanovich, you have something to say to the people, we are giving you this opportunity.

Alexander Ivanovich: Thank you very much. I would like to ask journalists, politicians and the people a favor. Please defend Ukraine. I’m asking you to defend it like a territory in which it is still possible to live. Yesterday around 3 am Moscow time, we received confirmation from Kiev that a sinister provocation was in preparation. The United States of America are trying to use chemical weapons in Donbass with the help of fascists [Kiev forces]. They will try to use these weapons in the following manner:

They will first strike Donetsk and Luhansk, then within a 40-50 minutes interval they will strike the ammonia reservoirs. Then, if the consequences are really dire, within 20 hours they will strike again, but this time with real military chemical weapons, you understand? This diversion is designed to have barbaric consequences and here is what is being done to make it happen.

Yesterday Mr. Biden, Vice-President of the United States led a cover-up operation on this information. It was officially determined what will be said, namely that Russia has fired missiles and heavy artillery on the Donbass territory. Why would they do this? What are these lies for? That is what is planned.

When the Americans together with the junta strike elements that are dangerous for the environment, they will also say that it was done by Russia, that the Russians overlooked this important material and accidentally destroyed it, that is how the Russians are portrayed.

Why am I saying all this? At first glance, the citizens will think: what can a lesser mortal like us do? Well if we do everything we can now to make this information widely known, then we will pull the rug from under the [Kiev Junta] Barbarians … They won’t be able to make these provocations throughout the world. That’s why I’m calling on journalists, regardless of the position you hold, whether it is for or against the junta and even on Poroshenko’s Channel 5, just let us defend Ukrainians.

End the war once and for all, people must live there! And if we allow such a catastrophe to occur, Ukraine will not support two catastrophes, one which happened in Chernobyl and another one in Donbass. The country will then be paralyzed for hundreds of years. Therefore, in order to save the people, the children, the elderly, let’s unite, stand back-to-back to not let this happen.

ANNA News host: Thank you Alexander Ivanovich, we will do our best to make this video available to the people. We are begging all of you who have seen this video to share it as much as you can on all social networks, and send it personally to all your family members and friends.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-and-kiev-junta-planning-a-false-flag-chemical-attack-in-east-ukraine-the-plan-is-to-place-the-blame-on-russia/5399387

Posted on Global Research, September 3, 2014

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

A  ceasefire agreement pertaining to East Ukraine was communicated to the media following a telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Poroshenko.

Poroshenko is reported to have written on his Twitter account:

“As a result of my telephone conversation with the Russian president we reached an agreement on a permanent ceasefire on Donbass.”

The official communique on the president of Ukraine’s website states that:

“Mutual understanding was reached in regard to steps to be taken to provide peace,”

The Russian president cannot formally negotiate a cease fire with president Poroshenko because Russian forces are not involved in the conflict between Kiev forces and the Donbass militia.

What the Russian president undertook was to draft a seven point peace proposal calling for the withdrawal of Ukraine troops from southeastern regions of Ukraine and for Donbass militia to curtail their offensive.

This Seven point plan should be followed by concrete trilateral negotiations (Donbass, Ukraine, Russia). The Russian president is clear. These seven points could constitute the basis for negotiation between the parties in the conflict.

The Donbass governments of Donesk and Lugansk were not consulted regarding the substance of the seven point peace plan. They have no interest at this point in reaching a ceasefire agreement which provides Kiev forces with the opportunity to strike back at a later date.  The nature of these negotiations are of utmost importance.

This peace proposal which was communicated to journalists. Below is the full transcript.

At a press conference in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Putin responded to journalists:

QUESTION: Mr President, you spoke with Mr Poroshenko today. The Ukrainian authorities initially announced that you had agreed on a complete ceasefire, but then explanations came that what is under discussion are concrete steps for settling the situation, which is understandable, given that Russia is not a party to this conflict. If there was discussion of concrete steps, what are they, and what will happen next?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Yes, I did speak with President Poroshenko this morning, and it seemed to me at any rate that our views on how to settle the conflict are very close, as the diplomats say.

On the way here from Blagoveshchensk to Ulan Bator, I jotted down a few thoughts that could constitute an action plan of sorts. True, I have only these notes that I jotted down, but I can read them to you if you want.

In order to stop the bloodshed and stabilise the situation in southeast Ukraine, I believe that the parties to the conflict should immediately agree on and coordinate the following steps:

First, end active offensive operations by armed forces, armed units and militia groups in southeast Ukraine in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas.

Second, withdraw Ukrainian armed forces units to a distance that would make it impossible to fire on populated areas using artillery and all types of multiple launch rocket systems.

Third, allow for full and objective international monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation in the safe zone created by the ceasefire.

Fourth, exclude all use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas in the conflict zone.

Fifth, organise the exchange of individuals detained by force on an ‘all for all’ basis without any preconditions.

Sixth, open humanitarian corridors for refugees and for delivering humanitarian cargoes to towns and populated areas in Donbass – Donetsk and Lugansk Regions.

Seventh, make it possible for repair brigades to come to damaged settlements in the Donbass region in order to repair and rebuild social facilities and life-supporting infrastructure and help the region to prepare for the winter.

I think that the Kiev authorities and the representatives of southeast Ukraine could come to basic agreements and cement them at the contact group’s planned meeting on September 5.

I want to note that this statement and all I just said follow on from the telephone conversation with President Poroshenko that you asked about. I hope very much that Ukraine’s government will support the emerging progress in bilateral relations and make use of the positive opportunity the contact group’s work provides to bring about final and comprehensive settlement to the situation in southeast Ukraine, in full and unconditional respect for the lawful rights of those who live there of course.

That is all I have to say. I have nothing to add. Thank you. (Source office of the Russian presidency)

The first condition calls for a cease fire, the second and fourth conditions pertain to the relentless shelling and bombing of the civilian population by Ukraine forces.

There are, however, profound divisions within the Ukraine government, with attempts on the part of the West to stall the peace proposal.  Prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, who faithfully obeys orders emanating from the US State Department is reported to have dismissed the seven point peace plan, “calling it a trap.”

The contact group is meeting on September 5 in Minsk following its earlier meeting on September 1. At these earlier talks,  the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics urged Kiev “to acknowledge their “special status.”

The initial statement said that if Kiev guarantees their “special status,” then the Donetsk and Lugansk republics will do everything possible “to preserve Ukraine’s common economic, cultural and political space and the space of the entire Ukraine-Russian civilization.”

This was interpreted as the two self-proclaimed republics seeking autonomy within Ukraine while wishing to remain part of it.

However, later Donetsk People’s Republic Deputy PM Andrey Purgin explained that it’s about “the common security space of Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, about post-war reconstruction of the economic, cultural, and social connections with Ukraine, and also about the fact that the DNR and LNR wouldn’t lay claim to other Ukrainian territories.”

In their initial demands, LNR and DNR representatives called on the Ukrainian government to end their military operation in the country’s east so that parliamentary and local elections can take place freely.

“The president, government and [parliament] Verkhovna Rada should accept… decrees granting immediate recovery from the humanitarian catastrophe, acknowledging the special status of the territories under the control of the People’s Republics, creating conditions – first of all stopping the ‘anti-terror’ operations – for free elections of local authorities and MPs,” the document with the republics’ position reads.

The document also urged Kiev to guarantee “the right to use the Russian language at an official level on the territories of the People’s Republics.”

After the government of President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in March, the new authorities immediately started to introduce the legislation curbing the Russian language. Though the law failed to materialize in the end, the initiative was one of the major factors that triggered the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The self-proclaimed republics were represented by DNR Deputy PM Andrey Purgin and the chairman of the LNR’s Supreme Council, Aleksey Karyakin. RT emphasis added

The seven point peace plan is slated to be discussed at the contact group meeting under the auspices of the OSCE on September 5 with representatives of  Lugansk, Donetsk, Russia and Ukraine.

In all likelihood,  US-NATO will  attempt to stall the seven point peace proposal and will pressure the Ukrainian government.

The NATO Summit will be issuing its final communique on  September 5, which in large part has already been written and which proposes the militarization of Eastern Europe as well as NATO military involvement  in Ukraine.

Poroshenko will be leading the Ukrainian delegation to the Wales NATO summit on September 4-5. Putin was not invited to attend. The Ukrainian delegation will be releasing a joint declaration in consultation with NATO, which does not in any way envisage a cease fire.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/vladimir-putins-seven-point-peace-plan-for-east-ukraine/5399215

The article below was written in 2010. Since then, the US has continued opposing resolutions at the UN against the glorification  and free expression of Nazism and racism. The US has been joined by several other counties in opposing these resolutions. However, much-vilified Iran and Syria, as well as Israel have supported the resolutions and opposed Nazism.

Is “free speech” the real reason for US opposition, or just an excuse?

Slander and libel are not protected speech. Racist speech or hate speech is a form of libel and slander, and even assault. In addition, just as verbal sexual harassment creates a hostile work environment and is not protected, racist and hate speech create an unsafe and hostile living environment in an entire community. Furthermore, glorification of Nazism, which honors the people and the crimes, including murder, committed against millions of people, guarantees Nazism and racism will continue, making communities even less safe.

The US government won’t oppose racism or Nazism, because it supports them.

From Rock Creek Free Press

US Sole Opponent of UN Anti-Nazism Resolution
By Carla Stea / RCFP
January 25, 2010

On December 18, 2009, The United Nations General Assembly, by an overwhelming majority, adopted Resolution 64/147, A/C.3/64/L.53 put forth by the Third Committee, entitled: “Inadmissability of Certain Practices that Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.” Excerpts from this resolution stated:

1. Reaffirms the provisions of the Durban Declaration and of the outcome document of the Durban Review Conference in which states condemned the persistence and resurgence of neo-Nazism, neo-Fascism and violent nationalist ideologies based on racial and national prejudice and stated that these phenomena could never be justified in any instance or in any circumstances…..Expresses deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including by erecting monuments and memorials and holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, as well as by declaring or attempting to declare such members, and those who fought against the anti-Hitler coalition and collaborated with the Nazi movements, as participants in national liberation movements……Expresses concern at recurring attempts to desecrate or demolish monuments erected in remembrance of those who fought against Nazism during the Second World War, as well as to unlawfully exhume or remove the remains of such persons, and urges states in this regard to fully comply with their relevant obligations, inter alia, under article 34 of Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949….(Notes with concern the increase in the number of racist incidents in several countries and the rise of skinhead groups which have been responsible for many of these incidents, as well as the resurgence of racist and xenophobic violence targeting members of ethnic, religious or cultural communities and national minorities)….stresses that the practices described above do injustice to the memory of the countless victims of crimes against humanity committed in the Second World War, in particular those committed by the SS organization and those who fought against the anti-Hitler movement, and poison the minds of young people, and that those practices are incompatible with the obligations of the States members of the United Nations under its Charter, and are incompatible with the goals and principles of the Organization.”

On December 18th, 127 members of the United Nations, including India, Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Libya, voted in favor of the resolution. Fifty-four members abstained, including France, Germany, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine, and only one nation opposed the resolution: the United States. Continue reading →