Author: admin

John Kerry tells journalists to look in the social media for proof of Russian troops in Ukraine

Posted by

0

Posted on Fort Russ

John Kerry

February 5, 2015
Russian RT 
Translated by Kristina Rus

West and Kiev continue to accuse Russia of having troops in the conflict zone in the East of Ukraine. However, so far no evidence has been provided. Today during the press conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry was also unable to answer the question about the evidence of participation of the Russian military in the conflict in Donbass, and suggested to look for it on social networks.

Today during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev, the head of the U.S. Department of State, John Kerry, again failed to answer the question if there is strong evidence that Russian soldiers are involved in the conflict in the East of Ukraine. Instead, he invited the journalists to look for it online.

“Social networks are filled with reports and photos of Russian soldiers, who are brought back to Russia dead. And the parents of these soldiers in Russia are told that their sons were killed somewhere in an accident, ” – Kerry said. – There are also prisoners of war who have provided proof of their participation in the conflict (in the East of Ukraine. – RT). And that’s enough.”

Thus, at the moment, neither the West nor Kiev can provide convincing evidence of the presence of the Russian armed forces in the conflict zone. Moreover, not so long ago, the chief of the General Staff of Ukraine, Viktor Muzhenko, said during a briefing that Ukrainian army does not wage battles against the Russian military units and that Kiev knows only about some Russians fighting on the side of the militia.

“Currently, the Ukrainian army is not fighting with the regular army of Russia”, – said the general. However, Muzhenko stated that the General Staff of the UAF possessed information about the participation of individual citizens of the Russian Federation, including military, in the ranks of illegal armed formations”.

These words of the chief of the General Staff, who has access to the full volume of operational information from the front, clearly are contrary to the official position of Kiev, which from the beginning of the conflict repeatedly declared about an organized invasion of the regular units of the Russian army of the territory of Ukraine.

Recall that recently the President of Ukraine arrived at the economic forum in Davos with a fragment of the bus, exploded near Volnovakha. Petro Poroshenko made an emotional speech in which he accused the tragedy on Russia. In addition, during his speech, he stated that allegedly 9 thousand Russian soldiers are fighting on the territory of Ukraine . However, besides the loud proclamations, no evidence of Moscow’s involvement in the incident with the bus or participation in hostilities of regular units of the Russian army, was presented by the Ukrainian leader.

These words of the President were picked up by the permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, Yuriy Sergeyev. During the last meeting of the Security Council on Ukraine, he not only repeated the words of Poroshenko about 9 thousand Russian soldiers, but added that the military contingent of the army of the Russian Federation in Ukraine continues to grow and has reached 12 thousand people.

Source: http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/john-kerry-tells-journalists-to-look-in.html

Ukrainian commanders abandon their soldiers

Posted by

0

Translated by Kristina Rus
February 5, 2015
From http://ext-1320878.livejournal.com/feed/

UKRAINIAN OFFICERS ABANDON THEIR OWN ON AND OFF THE BATTLEFIELD

Reports from Donbass often talk about how Ukrainian officers behave in critical situations. For example:

“UAF officers fled first. Soldiers without the ability to retreat took the fight almost without command. Thanks to intelligence and wide agent network, it is possible to destroy the fire positions of the enemy before them opening fire. To destroy their convoys at the stage of their formation…”

“Threw heavy equipment and reinforcements to the Debaltsevo front. The pot began to boil, UAF commanders are saving themselves…”

“POW’s can not hide the anger and contempt towards their commanders, who threw them into the hands of the militia, and shamelessly ran away…”

“Panic in Kramatorsk. UAF and the Right Sector headquarters are evacuating, as they say, to Krasny Lyman…”

“I think only recruits remain in Uglegorsk. And without the commander rats they will die under strict orders and threats of persecution. Pity for their mothers. Those from UAF who are left in Uglegorsk are cannon fodder. Poroshenko will not pay them 1000 UAH as participants of ATO. The funerals will be more expensive…”

Meanwhile the Ukrainian side said the same thing since the summer defeats the army. On the pages of the weekly “Kraina,” Denis Vorobyov, correspondent of Espresso.TV, who spent 38 days in captivity after Ilovaisk, wrote:

“The entire command got out of this cauldron. Two vans with General Homchak and Dnepr battalion commander Yuri Bereza turned onto a forest lane. No one fired at them. Soldiers do not respect many of the commanders. The guys, who were wounded along with Semen Semenchenko, said: he got into a helicopter and flew to the hospital, and left them behind with broken legs…”

Since then, according to observers, nothing has changed. Ukrainian generals and officers now behave the same; evidence abound.

P.S.:

“Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyev” on Thursday (February 5, 2015)

Pavel Astakhov, the Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation:

“Interesting report which had shocked me last night: “The Council of Europe is offering a three day ceasefire in South-Eastern Ukraine. This was an apotheosis. For what? As representatives of DPR and LPR told me yesterday it is to take out the command staff from Debaltsevo cauldron. Not to take out the children, which I have a list of, not to create a humanitarian corridor – not once had they created a humanitarian corridor, but to help the Ukrainian security forces to evacuate their command staff, which got trapped in the cauldron.”

Source:
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/ukrainian-commanders-always-flee-first.html
Ukrainian commanders always flee first

 

February 6 NATO meeting heightens danger of war with Russa

Posted by

0

NATO leaders continue to lie about Russian aggression when even the Ukrainian military says there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. It is NATO aggression, pushing against Russian borders, arming neighboring countries, conducting constant military exercises in those countries, and arming and equipping the Ukrainian military to conduct genocidal operations against the Ukrainian people.

By Johannes Stern, February 5, 2015
World Socialist Web Site

NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels today to consolidate the military alliance against Russia, increasing the risk of a direct military confrontation between nuclear-armed powers.

NATO sources have revealed plans to establish a long-term presence in Eastern Europe, according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). So-called NATO “Force Integration Units” will be established in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. There are also plans to deploy such a unit in Hungary at a later time.

The units will consist of 40 soldiers each. They will be tasked with preparing exercises for a new NATO rapid response force and coordinating military activities in emergencies. Germany, which is spearheading the operation this year, intends to deploy a total of 25 soldiers within the units.

The ground troops of the rapid response force are to consist of a brigade of some 5,000 soldiers. The goal is for their most flexible units to have the capability to move to a new location within 48 hours. The entire brigade will be trained and equipped to be able to move to a new location within a week. The leadership of the operation will rotate yearly between NATO member countries.

According to the FAS, NATO defense ministers have already decided on the equipment to be provided during the “test phase,” which is to last until the beginning of next year. Starting in April, a company of German paratroopers will supplement American units that have been stationed in the Baltic States and Poland since last year.

Two weeks ago, the FAS revealed that NATO defense ministers will convene the Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) at the beginning of today’s meeting to discuss “the nuclear threat scenario from Russia in the past few months.”

Unlike previous years, according to the FAS, this will not merely be a routine meeting. An analysis of threat scenarios worked out at NATO headquarters will be presented to the defense ministers. Afterwards, the ministers “will for the first time discuss the consequences for the nuclear strategy of the alliance.” A separate consultation session is planned with France, which is not a member of the NPG.

NATO’s nuclear simulations underscore the fact that the imperialist powers are ready to risk nuclear war in order to force Russia to its knees. In the past week, a number of prominent figures, including former Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev, have warned of the danger of a Third World War if NATO, led by the United States, continues to take aggressive measures against Russia.

Under conditions of escalating fighting between troops of the Western-backed Kiev regime and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Gorbachev warned of a “hot war” that “could well inevitably turn into an atomic war.”

On Sunday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted the Russian military expert Yevgeny Buchinsky, who warned that, in response to an offensive against the Donbass by Kiev,

“Russia will have to intervene, and then, bluntly speaking, to take Kiev. Then NATO would be in a difficult situation. Then you would have to start World War III, which no one wants.”

In spite of such warnings, the imperialist powers and their proxies in Kiev are escalating the conflict. On Monday, the New York Times revealed that the Obama administration is considering sending advanced weapons to Kiev. The newspaper listed high-ranking current and former administration officials and military officers who are pushing for such a move.

The Times report triggered opposition among sections of the European elite. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that a decision by Washington to arm the Kiev regime with offensive weapons would be taken by Russia as the equivalent of a declaration of war. Russian officials and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke against any such move during a visit to Hungary.

Washington intends to use today’s NATO meeting to bring the member states into line behind its provocative and reckless course. At the beginning of the week, Alexander Vershbow, a former US ambassador to Russia and currently the deputy secretary general of NATO, referred to “Russian aggression” in Ukraine as a “game changer in European security.”

He emphasized the necessity of deploying rapid response troops in Eastern Europe, extending NATO’s reach in the east, and arming the Ukrainian military. Referring to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, all former Soviet republics, he said,

“The more stable they are, the more secure we are. So helping Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova—to strengthen their military forces, reform their institutions and modernize their economies—is not an act of generosity, it is in our fundamental strategic interest.”

He added,

“NATO is doing its part. To help Ukraine to modernize and reform its armed forces, we have launched five trust funds to assist in areas like command and control, logistics, cyber defense and military medicine. We are sending more advisors to Kiev and will be carrying out exercises with Ukraine’s armed forces. And we are helping Moldova and Georgia to strengthen their defense capacity in similar ways, and, in Georgia’s case, to help it prepare for future membership in the Alliance.”

At the end of his speech, Vershbow warned:

“This time around, having chosen our course, we must stick to it. We must stay united, stay firm and increase the costs to Russia of its aggression.”

Meanwhile, voices in favor of arming Ukraine are growing louder. Michael Gahler (Germany’s Christian Democratic Union—CDU), who is the spokesman on security policy for the European People’s Party in the European Union parliament, spoke in favor of sending weapons to Ukraine in an interview on Deutschlandfunk radio.

Wolfgang Ischinger, leader of the Munich Security Conference, which takes place this weekend, has adopted the same line. On ZDF Television he spoke in favor of the “announcement of possible weapons shipments” to Ukraine. “Sometimes one needs to use pressure to enforce peace,” he declared. While he cautioned that Germany should not send weapons, he said he could “imagine that other members of the alliance would want to do this.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whose regime was brought to power nearly a year ago by a fascist-led putsch backed by the US and Germany, and has since waged a brutal war against the population of eastern Ukraine, made an appearance yesterday in Kharkiv, which is near the border with Russia and the contested areas. He said that “we will need lethal weapons, and I am sure that foreign weapons will be sent to Ukraine.” He continued: “I don’t have any doubt that the US and other partners will provide help with lethal weapons so that Ukraine will be able to defend itself.”

Poroshenko will take part in the Munich Security Conference along with 20 other heads of state and 60 foreign and defense ministers. He is meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Kiev today.

Source:
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/02/05/nato-f05.html

Re-posted on
http://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-meeting-in-brussels-heightens-danger-of-war-with-russia/5429695

Czech President says ‘only poorly informed people’ don’t know about Ukraine coup

Posted by

0

Eric Zuesse, January 4, 2015
Posted on Washington’s Blog

The Czech Republic’s President Milos Zeman said, in an interview, in the January 3rd edition of Prague’s daily newspaper Pravo, that Czechs who think of the overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, on 22 February 2014, as having been like Czechoslovakia’s authentically democratic “Velvet Revolution” are seeing it in a profoundly false light, because, (as Russian Television translated his statement into English) “Maidan was not a democratic revolution.” He said that this is the reason why Ukraine now is in a condition of “civil war,” in which the residents of the Donbass region in Ukraine’s southeast have broken away from the Ukrainian Government.

He furthermore said that, “Judging by some of the statements of [Ukrainian] Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, I think that he is rather a prime minister of war because he does not want a peaceful solution, as recommended by the European Union (EU), but instead prefers to use force.” (By contrast, George Soros, who has invested in Ukrainian bonds, and whose International Renaissance Foundation — also called The International Renaissance Fund — helped finance the overthrow of Yanukovych, as well as the hate-mongering Hromadske TV in Ukraine, is proud of it, and has repeatedly said that the EU must invest whatever is necessary for Ukraine to win its war against the residents of Donbass, and carry the war to victory against Russia. His alleged passion for ‘democracy’ has evidently been actually a hatred of Russians; it wasn’t an opposition to communism, after all; he hates Russians even after they have abandoned communism. Today’s Czech President is instead committed to democracy, not to hatred and bigotry of any sort. He’s a real democrat.)

Zeman added, by way of contrast to Yatsenyuk, the possibility that Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko “might be a man of peace.” So: though Zeman held out no such hope regarding Yatsenyuk (who was Obama’s choice to lead Ukraine), he did for Poroshenko (who wasn’t Obama’s choice, but who became Ukraine’s President despite Obama’s having wanted Yatsenyuk’s sponsor, the hyper-aggressive Yulia Tymoshenko, to win the May 25th Presidential election, which was held only in Ukraine’s pro-coup northwest, but claimed to possess authority over the entire country).[Editor: Further events have confirmed that Poroshenko is not at all a man of peace, including his lie at Davos that 9000 Russian troops had invaded Ukraine.]

What this statement from Zeman indicates is that the European Union is trying to deal with Poroshenko, as the “good cop” in a “good cop, bad cop” routine, with Yatsenyuk playing the bad cop; and, so, the EU’s policies regarding Ukraine will depend upon what comes forth from Poroshenko, not at all upon what comes from the more clearly pro-war, anti-peace, Yatsenyuk.

Furthermore, Zeman’s now publicly asserting that the overthrow of Yanukovych was a coup instead of having merely expressed the democratic intentions of most of the Maidan demonstrators, constitutes a sharp break away from U.S. President Barack Obama, who was behind that Ukrainian coup and who endorses its current leaders. Continue reading →

Ukrainian deputy from the Opposition bloc calls Turchinov “the bloody pastor” at PACE

Posted by

0

Pravda, 1-29-15
Translated by Kristina Rus

The people’s deputy of Ukraine at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called Turchinov “a bloody pastor.”

Ukrainian MP Yulia Levochkina urged Europe to stop the current Ukrainian government from inciting war.

The delegate from Ukraine to PACE, MP from the Opposition bloc, Yulia Levochkina, during the debate concerning the adoption of a resolution on Russia on Wednesday, January 28, urged Europe to stop the Ukrainian government and to “put Kiev authorities in their place”, who are waging war in Donbass.

“Today the government is led by the party of war, which seeks to continue the war. And the Secretary of the Security and Defense Council, Alexander Turchinov, has a nickname “The Bloody pastor,” said Levochkina.

She also encouraged the Europeans to stop the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia.

“Our assembly should resist the Ukrainian government, which is trying to build a wall between Ukraine and Russia,” said Levochkina to the delegates and reminded that it is the fault of the current government that the parliamentary elections did not take place in Crimea and Donbass.

Supporters of the Ukrainian authorities were extremely enraged in the social networks by the words of Levochkina and demanded the government to “deal with her according to the laws of wartime.”

 

http://www.pravda.ru/news/world/formerussr/ukraine/29-01-2015/1246168-ukraine-0/

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/ukrainian-deputy-from-opposition-bloc.html

Open letter from members of the French Resistance to President Hollande

Posted by

0

Posted on Vineyard of the Saker, February 3, 2015

The voice of France, the UN and Russia, an open letter to Monsieur le Président de la République 

Monsieur le Président de la République

Fascisme is reemerging everywhere in Europe, singularly in countries which have been freed from the USSR where powerful and dark forces are using NéoNazism as an ideological vector for their national emancipation and their territorial sovereignty .In these circles and beyond them, the Ukrainian crisis, which is politically and diplomatically overexploited to undermine the Russian Federation is used as a pretext for multiple attempts to rehabilitate the Third Reich, especially in the Baltic Countries, where monuments commemorating the 1945 victory are often desecrated with the covert or overt complicity of the concerned governments.

The Western world is in no way immune from these dangerous overflows. In defiance of it’s historical status, the European Union tolerates within itself, political movements which have been able, with impunity, to send to the EU Parliament, legally elected deputies, although self styled Nazis.

In face of this situation, which is fed and worsened by a never ending economical crisis on the old continent, Russia submit every year to the general assembly of the United Nations, a resolution calling for the refusal of « this glorification of Nazis and their collaborators who, waiving Swastika banners and marching with their right arms held up, are overtly promoting xenophobia and racial superiority.

Unfortunately, the United States of America, Canada and the Marshall Islands, systematically oppose this text and the European Union – among which is France-, choosing in that respect to renew with the disastrous spirit of Munich, chose to refrain. Opponents and abstentions, put forward as an excuse… Respect for freedom of expression, to justify their decisions. Under the same pretext, they block the passing of similar decisions within the OSCE. This attitude is pitiful and dangerous and can be considered as a signed blank paper for the Fascists to keep on with their criminal activities.

This year, the pretext put forward for a ‘no’ vote or abstention to the resolution, is the Ukrainian crisis and the « annexation » of Crimea. Putin should be made to understand that the West won’t tolerate an expansionist Russia. This is of course only a pretext because in November of 2013, as the Ukrainian crisis was just unfolding, their was no separatists claims of any sort in Eastern Ukraine or in Crimea. The vote had been the same. Most noticeable is the 2010 vote, during which the Russian President was Medvedev, known to be closer to the West than the actual President.

The fact that the Russian diplomatic initiatives are thus subjected to contempt is unacceptable. The tremendous death toll paid by the USSR during the second world war, morally forbid it. Resistants in Europe and especially in France, know what they owe to the Red Army. Without the decisive victories over Hitler, the world battle for liberty wouldn’t have been possible and the allies would have never landed in Italy nor on the Coast of Normandie. Must it be reminded, that on the D Day, June the 6th of 1944, the Werhmacht was collapsing everywhere on the East front and that Hitler had thus already lost the war ? Must it be reminded that, without the Soviets sacrifices, France would have never recovered its freedom ? Must it be reminded that without Moscow, Stalingrad and Koursk’s victories – the mains Nazis military defeats- the world could never have freed itself from fascism and the United Nations Organisation would have never existed ?

We would also want to remind you, mister President, that during the spring and summer of 1942, the General De Gaulle had, in vain, tried to persuade the allies to open a « second front ». If the General De Gaulle had been heard, millions of people in the Soviet Union and in the concentration camps, wouldn’t have lost their lives. Must we remind you that the landing in France as suggested by the General de Gaulle, was replaced by a landing in North Africa and that the first version of the now famous American « regime change » took place at that time, the Americans having chosen the General Giraud instead of De Gaulle.

France, which as a member of the Security Council, have a right of veto, must not forget history and the lessons it teaches. France must not forget the responsibilities which have been bestowed to her by the fact of having been able to sit at the winners table. France must not forget that without the resistance movement, without the commitment of the General De Gaulle saving the honor of our country from London, France wouldn’t enjoy the diplomatic weight and prestige which it has acquired. Consequently, its voice, which is heard, when relying on historical principles, used and exalted by the National Resistance Council, its voice must be heard in the fight against the rebirth of Nazism, which is to say, in fact, its own values. Values that you invoked during your multiple public interventions, especially during the commemorations of the landings in Normandie and Provence.

As a Head of the State, it thus belongs to you to break the guilty and spineless caution of a Europe which flimsiness in foreign affairs never stops to tarnish the brilliance.

Consequently, the signatories request from you, that next year, the signature of France be added to those of the nations having already backed the resolution of the Federation of Russia.

Armand Conan, Résistant, membre du Comité Départemental du Morbihan
René Jassaud, Résistant, ravitailleur du maquis « camp Robert » dans le Var
Colette Lacroix, Résistante, membre du réseau SOE « pimento » dans l’Ain
Antoine Payet, Résistant, membre du groupe de St Fons dans le Rhône
Paul Raybaud, membre du réseau Camp Robert dans le Var

Source:
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2015/02/open-letter-of-members-of-french.html

 

Top Ukrainian general admits no Russian troops; no basis for sanctions against Russia or military aid to Ukraine

Posted by

0

But of course, the U.S. and NATO, with their satellite photos and surveillance, knew this all along. That’s why the accusations never had proof attached. And it is also why the accusations about “rebels” shooting down MH-17 have gone so quiet.

Western leaders lie to provoke cataclysmic wars against innocent people. They support genocide. They create conditions for a nuclear war. What sort of people are they?
—————————————————————–

Eric Zuesse, January 31, 2014
Posted on Global Research

Ukraine’s top general is contradicting allegations by the Obama Administration and by his own Ukrainian Government, by saying that no Russian troops are fighting against the Ukrainian Government’s forces in the formerly Ukrainian, but now separatist, area, where the Ukrainian civil war is being waged.

Here is a screen-print of a google-chrome auto-translation of that statement:

The Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Viktor Muzhenko, is saying, in that news-report, which is dated on Thursday January 29th, that the only Russian citizens who are fighting in the contested region, are residents in that region, or of Ukraine, and also some Russian citizens (and this does not deny that perhaps some of other countries’ citizens are fighting there, inasmuch as American mercenaries have already been noted to have been participating on the Ukrainian Government’s side), who “are members of illegal armed groups,” meaning fighters who are not paid by any government, but instead are just “individual citizens” (as opposed to foreign-government-paid ones). General Muzhenko also says, emphatically, that the “Ukrainian army is not fighting with the regular units of the Russian army.”

In other words: He is explicitly and clearly denying the very basis for the EU’s sanctions against Russia, and for the U.S.’s sanctions against Russia: all of the sanctions against Russia are based on the falsehood that Ukraine is fighting against “the regular units of the Russian army” — i.e., against the Russian-Government-controlled-and-trained fighting forces.

The allegation to the effect that Ukraine is instead fighting against “regular units of the Russian army” is the allegation that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine, and it is the entire basis for the economic sanctions that are in force against Russia.

Those sanctions should therefore be immediately removed, with apology, and with compensation being paid to all individuals who have been suffering them; and it is therefore incumbent upon the Russian Government to pursue, through all legally available channels, restitution, plus damages, against the perpetrators of that dangerous fraud — and the news reports have already made clear precisely whom those persons are, who have asserted, as public officials, what can only be considered to be major libel.

Otherwise, Ukraine’s top general should be fired, for asserting what he has just asserted.

If what General Muzhenko says is true, then he is a hero for having risked his entire career by having gone public with this courageous statement. And, if what he says is false, then he has no place heading Ukraine’s military.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Source:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukrainian-government-no-russian-troops-are-fighting-against-us-sanctions-against-russia-based-on-falshoods/5428523

Russian civilization is at stake in Novorossia

Posted by

0

This provocative article and its vision are in stark contrast to the narrow, ethnically cleansed goals promoted by leaders for a Social Nationalist Ukraine.

The article about Ramzan Kadyrov
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/12/ramzan-kadyrov-offers-putin-his-own.html
is an example of the broad homeland that is Russia.

By Rostislav ISCHENKO (Ukraine), September 17, 2014
Posted on Oriental Review

After the army of Novorossia launched a major offensive and began rapidly expanding the area under its control, it became clear to even the most skeptical observers that it was only a matter of time until the militia would inflict a decisive military victory over Kiev. But after Novorossia’s military victory in Ukraine, we will very quickly see the next (and this time, the definitive) Russian geopolitical victory in its confrontation with the combined forces of the West (the United States and the EU’s pro-American lobby).

America’s inability to defend Mikhail Saakashvili’s regime in 2008 raised some eyebrows among its allies, but in general the affair was viewed as nothing more than an unfortunate setback (which could happen to anyone). But when the stakes were twice as high, the US failure in Syria, where Russia has been able to keep Bashar al-Assad in power, undermined Washington’s credibility in the Middle East and stripped the “Arab Spring” of its significance. Nevertheless, the EU remains a dependable US ally, and once there is a victory in Ukraine, after the stakes are doubled yet again, all lost ground should be recovered and Russia will be removed from the concert of the great powers. But an extremely risky operation, which will be disastrous should it end in defeat, will be required for any significant victory.

Each time the US has lost as much as it has wanted to win from Russia. The current defeat will result in a sharp curtailment of the role of Washington (and with it, the role of the combined forces of the West) in global politics. The US, NATO, and the EU are being transformed into large, important, and yet regional organizations, which can influence the fate of the world only by coordinating their positions and finding a compromise with the Rest.

Both China and the West offer the world a universalist, imperial ideology. In China this consists of the traditional Han culture, and in the West – the American “melting pot” that turns Germans, Irish, English, Italians, Hispanics, African Americans, and former Russians into red-blooded Americans. The difference is that Chinese culture is more static, while Western culture is more malleable. In the US, the traditional Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture has been almost entirely replaced by an African-American/Hispanic, pagan/Christian/Muslim symbiosis that is making dogged inroads even in the Old World (classical Europe). But despite this shift, the culture and ideology of the West have lost neither their universalist character, nor their aggressive messianism.

Thus, Russia is faced with the challenge of providing the world with a universalist ideology rooted in an analogous cultural foundation. And such an ideology exists. It is the ideology of the Russian World.

A historical joint creation

Some opponents of the Russian World argue that such an ideology does not exist as a formalized system of beliefs. Others see it as the ideology of aggressive Russian nationalism, which is attempting to rebuild its empire within the old Soviet borders and to ensure stability through a coerced Russification of its perimeter.

Neither side has any idea what it is talking about.

First of all, an imperialist, universalist ideology cannot be nationalistic. An empire cannot use bloodlines as a criterion, but must be based on the principle of citizenship and of legal equality.

Second, cultural unity in an empire is not achieved by suppressing other cultures, but through cultural convergence – when different cultures make contact, mingle, and ultimately complement one another. An empire is always multicultural. Even China, which is officially mono-national, has absorbed the cultures of all the peoples that have been assimilated and diffused into that Han sea. Borrowings from the cultures of the Tibetans, Mongolians, Manchus, Uyghurs, and Miao and Yao tribes so shape the image of Han culture today that China would be unrecognizable without them.

Third, one cannot fight for an abstraction. And a war is underway in Novorossia for the Russian World. Shall we try to analyze the basis of the cultural and ideological system of the Russian World and why mankind is attracted by what it has to offer, so that the decline of American hegemony, followed by the inevitable economic and military/political costs (and in some cases – such as in Ukraine – disasters) have not been perceived as the apocalypse?

Not only does the Russian World not fit within the boundaries of a national state consisting of Russians, it even precludes the very construction of such a state. Today, it is not only Russians who are battling for the Russian World in Novorossia, but also Serbs, French, Ossetians, Chechens, and representatives of other nations, many of whom are indifferent to Russian-ness, Slavdom, Orthodoxy, and even Christianity. But all these people not only represent the Russian World, they are dying for it. And we should not be surprised that, despite their dissimilarities, they feel at ease within the Russian World. After all, it originally arose as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious community.

From its inception to the present day, Russia as a political state has been the fruit of the creative efforts of many ethnic groups, not only Russians. Of course, their role in forming that state can neither be denied nor minimized, but without the freely given, creative input of other nations and tribes, the Russian people could have created nothing. First of all, the Russian nation itself (which encompasses far more than merely its Eastern Slavic roots) would never have been established, and if the Russians had been as nationally and religiously insular as the Jews, for example, then (assuming they had survived) they would ultimately have inhabited a territory not much larger than Israel.

The Russian World is also unique in that the Russians within it can consist of people without a drop of Russian blood. The Russian World is a cultural, ideological, and political choice – one does not make one’s way there via citizenship or right of birth.

And in the Russian world the Russian Orthodox Church holds the same position as do the Russian people: each is accorded a place of honor but does not hold sway. Even during the centuries when Orthodoxy was the state religion of the Russian Empire, its subjects who held other faiths (not only Muslims, but also Catholics, Protestants, and even Jews) were permitted the unrestricted right to their own beliefs. Conversion to Orthodoxy facilitated a career in public service, but overall the state remained low-key, not only in regard to other religions, but even toward heresies within the state church itself. In particular, the maltreatment of the Old Believers never reached the scale or brutality of the persecution of heretics in Europe. Orthodoxy peacefully coexists with other religions, carrying out its mission of sharing the teachings of Christ, not by fire and sword, but by example and admonition.

In general, the Russian World is Russian and Orthodox only to the extent that the nations within its purview recognize the central role of the Russian Orthodox people and of Russian culture in the formation of such a comfortable communal setting, in which even the smallest ethnic groups and most primitive cultures have a chance to survive and develop, enriched by the achievements of their neighbors and sharing their own achievements.

An ideological, supranational structure

In essence, the Russian World is grounded in the long-established precept of uniting nations, cultures, and religions in accordance with rules that are consistent, understandable, and acceptable to all. It differs from the American “melting pot” and the Chinese “heavenly mandate” in that the Russian World does not assimilate the surrounding cultures, turning everyone into Han Chinese, for example (yet borrowing from many of the achievements of the peoples being assimilated). And the Russian World does not impose a “single democratic standard,” as does the American model. The Russian World creates a setting in which all can flourish. The watchword of the Russian World is “non-interference.” Freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of speech – all these freedoms are fully exercised, but only to the extent that one freedom does not conflict with another. But for all its diversity, this world is unified by common interests (security, economics, and culture), as well as a common understanding of the crucial, cementing role played by the Russian Orthodox people in the provision of the very existence of not only the Russian World, but also its member nations.

As such, the Russian world is really a universal ideology that is well suited to either Russians, Americans, the French, or the Japanese, because it does not infringe upon anyone’s cultural distinctions, proclaiming not a competition, but a convergence of cultures.

Within this context, the Russian World can exist only because its scope today encompasses much more than merely the Russian state. As previously mentioned, Novorossia is fighting for the Russian World, and it is not yet clear whether Novorossia will ultimately become part of Russia or retain its political independence. Serbia envisions itself within the Russian World, and similar sentiments are growing in Bulgaria. But not all who envision themselves in the Russian World also envision themselves in the Russian state. This should not necessarily be seen as a weakness. Herein lies the strength of the Russian world as an ideology that is capable of transcending borders. It is important to remember that the United States can be found not only in those places where it has transgressed its own borders, or even where it has military bases, but also everywhere there is a McDonald’s. The Russian World, however, unites people around a premise that is more trustworthy, more elevated, and more acceptable to all nations than the vapid American urge to consume. The Russian World ensures a respect for tradition as well as the promise that any necessary changes will be carried out in the most conservative manner possible, in order to avoid the revolutionary turmoil that can sever the ties between generations.

The Russian World will never create a Russian Russia. That would be the death of the Russian World, as well as of Russia and of Russians. The concept of a Russian Russia is no different from the concept of a Ukrainian Ukraine and, if pursued, would lead to the same catastrophic and immutable consequences. The Russian World is not a state consisting of one nation, but states (in the plural) of an idea – a sort of confederation of justice that provides equal rights and opportunities for all its member nations. This ideological, supranational structure ensures that all its members accept the same moral and ethical standards. And the question of political integration is a matter for a future time, should the acknowledged necessity arise over the course of this experiment in coexistence.

Rostislav Ischenko is the President of Centre for System Analysis and Forecasting (Kiev).

Source in Russian: Expert

Original text adapted and translated by ORIENTAL REVIEW.

Related video

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/VFUVl0HHio8″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

Renaissance of Novorossia: a tradition projected to the future

Novorossia (New Russia) is an old well-forgotten toponym related to the lands annexed to the Russian from Ottoman Empire in XVIII century by Catherine the Great. For the last 90 years these territories were administrated by Kiev. In modern terms this historic territory overlaid what is now Donetsk, Lugansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhie, Nikolaev, Kherson and Odessa regions of Ukraine, populated by predominantly Russian-speakers and strongly opposing ultra-nationalist regime in Kiev which came to power as a result of coup d’état in February 2014. The rebirth of Novorossia project was triggered by the blind ambitions of the regime in Kiev to impose anti-Russian ideology on the people feeling indissoluble link with their cultural Motherland. The video presents faces, monuments and landmarks of this fascinating country eager for renaissance under St.Andrew’s banner.

Source:

http://orientalreview.org/2014/09/17/what-civilization-is-at-stake-in-novorossia/

Poroshenko: “Let their children sit in the cellars!” — the children of Gorlovka.

Posted by

0

Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko, in an Odessa TV address to the nation, on November 13th, said:

“We will have our jobs. They will not. We will have our pensions. They will not. We will have care for children, for people, and retirees. They will not. Our children will go to schools and kindergartens. Theirs will hole up in basements [from our bombs]. Because they are not able to do anything. This is exactly how we will win this war! [I.e., we will starve and terrorize them into submission.]”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWHqj8g7Bk

Posted on Fort Russ, January 28, 2015
Pictures from Cassad.
As he promised in his famous speech, Poroshenko must be delighted each day that Donbass kids spend in the cellars, in January, in the winter, while Gorlovka is being pounded daily around the clock by the brave Ukrainian army.
Sources:
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/01/poroshenko-let-their-children-sit-in.htmlhttp://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraines-president-to-the-people-hes-bombing-go-to-hell/5414387

Ukraine: “We target civilians.” Separatists: “Their targeting maps prove it.”

Posted by

0

Eric Zuesse. 1 Feb. 2015
Posted on Fort Russ

The pro-regime Ukrainian TV station Hromandske TV — which is funded by the U.S. Government, the Dutch Government, and George Soros (via his International Renaissance Foundation or ‘Fund’) —  has reported that the Ukrainian Government is specifically targeting civilians to die in the Donbass region in the former Ukraine’s southeast. It’s being done in order “to clean the cities.”
This is open acknowledgement that the operation, which the U.S. is financing (and Ukraine is bankrupt so it can never reimburse its donors), is actually an ethnic-cleansing campaign.
Previously, on Hromadske TV, a proponent of doing just that (ethnic cleansing) was interviewed. He said: “If we take, for example, just the Donetsk oblast, there are approximately 4 million inhabitants, at least 1.5 million of which are superfluous. … Donbass must be exploited as a resource, which it is. … The most important thing that must be done — no matter how cruel it may sound — is that there is a certain category of people that must be exterminated.”
Here is how it’s done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l17KfjtaqpA
[9 September 2014, from Slavyangrad, pro-separatists’ clips are shown, taken from pro-Ukrainian-Government telecasts]
Video of Commander of the Ukrainian Government’s volunteer battalion ’Shaktarsk,’ Ruslan Onishchenko:
“Our mission, being employees of the Ministry of the Interior, is to clean the cities, after the army has ‘worked’ this territory with aircraft, artillery and heavy military equipment. This is a normal tactical approach to warfare.”
Retired Col. General Vladimir Ruban, interviewed on the pro-Ukrainian-Government Hromadske TV, then says:
“I want to offer the Ukrainian artillerists medals, to those who shell the city [Donetsk], the houses and the civilian population,
… for they [artillerists] have deserved it [medals], both because of the accuracy and inaccuracy.
… It’s one thing if attack groups or any mobile mortar troops drive through the city and shoot,
… but if the artillery units fired from the airport [i.e., from the distance], then no one can claim that the separatists shoot themselves [i.e., that the people who are being killed in the city are victims of separatist troops mistakenly hitting passers-by when aiming at Government troops. He is saying that artillerists will clearly get the blame, whereas street-fighters can always blame the ‘terrorists.’].
… The shelling there is done as intimidation, … not just object destruction, but intimidation [to get the population to flee to nearby Russia]. The civilian population is intimidated by a chaotic bombardment of different objects. There are many shells that plug directly into the streets or vegetable gardens [and so make the very ground on which these people live terrifying to them].
TERVIEWER: This refers to those that didn’t explode?
ANSWER:  Yes, … there are many of those, … shells that fail to detonate. But Gorlowka has been fortunate to have not yet been totally eradicated from the face of the earth, along with the civilian population.
INTERVIEWER: You mean that the city is bombarded violently? ANSWER: Gorlowka was shelled by our troops, [even] as I went there for the prisoner exchange. Although  it was known that I was there, they [our troops] kept up the bombardment of Gorlowka. 
General Ruban might not have known it at the time of his interview, but on February 1st, Life News in Russia bannered “Militia DNR: Ukrainian Army Uses US Missiles,” and reported that in Gorlovka were found “shells that do not belong to Ukrainian artillery, and even more so do not use Soviet or post-Soviet military equipment. According to their hypothesis, the weapons are from NATO. Deputy brigade commander Army DNR [Donetsk People’s Republic] callsign ‘Biker’ showed shells and said that …  this is a special projectile 155 caliber self-propelled artillery of the M109 A1 American production, which is used by NATO countries.” Furthermore,
“The presence of foreigners in their army and radio intercepts confirms our intelligence when we hear in interceptions, phrases in English and Polish.”
Germany’s Bild, and Britain’s Mail, are also among the international news organizations that have previously reported on American mercenaries, including the former notorious Blackwater organization, ‘advising’ the Ukrainian army in this war.  The finding of U.S. military provisions on the battlefields in Donbass is, furthermore, routine; but U.S. soldiers, like Russian ones, are probably not fighting there. Ukraine is only a proxy war between the two major nuclear powers, not yet a direct war between them.
Within just the past few days, further video evidence was uploaded which indicates that the targeting of civilians is a central purpose of the U.S.-funded Ukrainian war campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=MCcl60gND7g#t=25
[29 January 2015] The journalists of Ren TV [a major Russian network, privately owned by Russian aristocrats] today received the first documentary evidence that residential areas of Donbass [the rebelling region of the former Ukraine; the farthest-east part of Ukraine, shown here in the darkest purple] are being targeted. Although Kiev may claim that ‘stray shells’ hit a hospital or a kindergarten, we have found on the front line that is being left behind by departing Ukrainian soldiers, artillery maps, where the targets were restaurants, cafeterias and shops. Here is an exclusive report by our correspondent Valentin Trushin from the former UAF’s [Ukrainian Armed Forces} trenches:
This is a field near the village of Ozeryanovka, from which recently was a Ukrainian battery firing at Gorlovka:
… [The rebel soldier says that many of these abandoned tanks and other weapons are undamaged, and ‘They will say tomorrow that Russia supplied them to us, but it’s actually their equipment that will be repaired if necessary but will be used at war against them.’ Views of Government-destroyed Gorlovka are shown.]
… In the [rebel-]destroyed dugouts were found … notebooks of cannon commanders, maps. The documents show that shelling of the city [by the Government] was not random, but deliberate. The coordinates of the targets are shown. For examples, one is a restaurant, another a cafeteria or a market where no militiamen were stationed.
… Here are their target-maps,
… irrefutable evidence of war crimes.  
Little over a month ago, a rebel commander explained why the Ukrainian armed forces are losing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=F2cTrvHnBxs
[13 Dec. 2014, from Cassad TV in Crimea, run by a man whom the U.S. aristocracy describe as being a far-right Marxist] 
“How the Elite UA [Ukrainian Army] Troops Were Defeated by the Militia. Interview with Commander Kedr” (head of the anti-Ukrainian-Government Semyonovka battalion in the outskirts of Slovyansk):
How did you manage to defeat them?
ANSWER: The most surprising thing is that they were eliminated by the [rebel] militias, who haven’t graduated from any military academies. Many of them haven’t even served in the army before. The majority of them had only for the very first time recently taken weapons in their hands [they hadn’t previously owned or used even a gun]. I think that victory … [resulted from] … the high motivation of our troops, and it was guaranteed by the high morale, the example that was being given by the commanders who were taking part in the fight themselves. It provided such a result. Good trophies [weapons] were captured then, … [and it even] happened before the Ilovaisk cauldron [when the enemy was encircled], and at a time when the situation was very difficult for the militias themselves, … [so] there was only one injured soldier from our side in that battle, but from the enemy’s side were killed 15-12 men, practically all of them [that were fighting]. … Six [of them] were taken captive. [The battlefield is shown with enemy corpses].
… Our unit arrived to collect the corpses of two of their shot-down pilots. But the enemy managed to save one of their pilots. I repeat: Our troops weren’t professional military but people like miners and trolley-bus drivers.
[3:17] I’d say to Ukrainian mothers that our soldiers have nowhere to retreat from their own land, while the enemy have a chance to turn around and go home. 
[4:14: video is shown of the enemy’s combat ration.] It’s an American combat ration.
The actual reason why this southeast-Ukrainian ethnic-cleansing campaign is necessary for Obama, who installed the current regime in Ukraine, is that, if it is not done, and, if the people who lived and voted in the Donbass region (Ukraine’s far-east) were still to remain there and allowed to vote there as being citizens of Ukraine, then they would vote at least 90% against the regime’s candidates, and for moderates, because, even before the regime had started to exterminate these people, they had voted 90% for Viktor Yanukovych in the last democratic Ukraine-wide Presidential election (which was back in 2010), and he was the very same man whom Obama overthrew. Now, after this extermination-campaign, the vote there against the Obama stooges would be virtually 100% — not just 90%.
In other words: Obama needs to get rid of those people. They can die, or else they can flee to Russia, but Obama needs them gone from Ukraine.
As regards why Obama had wanted their land to begin with, it was because unless the gas and other assets in the ground there can be privatized or sold off by the Ukrainian Government to pay its debts, the Ukrainian Government will go bankrupt and become an enormous drag on everyone who had previously lent to it, including the U.S., IMF, EU, World Bank, and others (ironically including even Russia).
Now that the situation is becoming increasingly clear that this land will not be able to be controlled by the Ukrainian Government, Obama’s best bet (in terms of his objectives) is to allow the war simply to end with Ukraine’s defeat, so that no more good money will go to Ukraine after the previous bad money is thus lost, but just cut the losses and bring this truncated and rabidly anti-Russian western half of Ukraine into NATO for the goal that is, apparently, Obama’s top foreign-policy objective: surrounding Russia with U.S. nuclear missiles and with regimes that hate Russia, in order to get Russia’s capitulation to America’s aristocracy.
Vladimir Putin wants Donbass to instead remain a part of Ukraine, as a counter-weight there against the rabidly anti-Russian voters in Ukraine’s western region, so as to produce yet another Yanukovych-like leadership in Ukraine and thus reduce the likelihood of a global nuclear war (which would be Russia’s only alternative if Obama were to succeed in his surround-Russia-with-missiles plan).
After all: John Fitzgerald Kennedy didn’t like it when the Soviet Union in 1962 tried to place nuclear missiles in just one location near the U.S.: Cuba. For Putin, Ukraine is like a nuclear Cuba was to America, but more like around ten nuclear Cubas, in Russia’s case. For Ukraine to join NATO would, perhaps, alone be sufficient threat to Russia so as to produce an immediate Russian nuclear attack against the U.S. and other NATO nations (a pre-emptive Russian attack, against us). The insane ones there would be the U.S. and any nation that supports it — the nations that then are clearly aiming to ‘conquer’ Russia. The U.S., under Kennedy, refused to stand for it in reverse; and Russia, under Putin or any other leader, shouldn’t stand for it, either. NATO needs to end, immediately. It had started as an anti-communist club, and was then valid; but what it was and is after the end of the Soviet Union, is the greatest threat to the entire world. It is now nothing but an anti-Russian club: not just insane, but also evil.
The only beneficiaries of today’s NATO are the West’s arms-merchants and other military suppliers. For everybody else, it’s catastrophe waiting to happen.
So: that’s the reason why the United States has been supporting (and, until now, even demanding) an ethnic-cleansing campaign in the former Ukraine. It’s part of the evil and supremely dangerous insanity that is NATO.
 
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records1910-2010,  and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
Source: http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/ukraine-we-target-civilians-separatists.html