The Situation in the Ukraine. #4

Ukraine: The waiting game
By Pepe Escobar

Everything one needs to know about mediocre political elites allegedly representing the "values" of Western civilization has been laid bare by their reaction to the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk.

The referendums may have been a last-minute affair; organized in a rush; in the middle of a de facto civil war; and on top of it at gunpoint - supplied by the Kiev NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta, which even managed to kill some voters in Mariupol. An imperfect process? Yes. But absolutely perfect in terms of graphically

depicting a mass movement in favor of self-rule and political independence from Kiev.

This was direct democracy in action; no wonder the US State Department hated it with a vengeance. [1]

Turnout was huge. The landslide victory for independence was out of the question. Same for transparency; a public vote, in glass ballot boxes, with monitoring provided by Western journalists - mostly from major German media but also from the Kyodo News Agency or the Washington Post.

What should come after the Donetsk People's Republic proclaimed itself a sovereign state, and asked Moscow to consider its accession into Russia, is not secession, nor outright civil war, but a negotiation.

That's clear by the Kremlin's measured official reaction: "Moscow respects the will of the people in Donetsk and Lugansk and hopes that the practical realization of the outcome of the referendums will be carried out in a civilized manner."

The cautious tone is also reflected by the Kremlin urging the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help broker the negotiation.

Yet once again, there's concrete proof that the NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta does not want to negotiate anything. Farcical "acting" President Oleksandr Turchynov labeled the exercise in direct democracy a "farce, which terrorists call the referendum"; and Washington and Brussels branded it "illegal".

And all this after the Odessa massacre; after the deployment of neo-nazi paramilitaries disguised as a "National Guard" (the goons US corporate media calls "Ukrainian nationalists"); dozens of CIA and FBI agents on the ground; plus 300 of the inevitable Academi - former Blackwater - mercenaries. What else to expect when the current Ukrainian Secretary for National Security is neo-nazi Andriy Parubiy, the previous commander of the Maidan's "self-defense forces" and a cheerleader of World War II nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

Banderastan - with its remix of 1980s Central American-style death squads - doesn't do referendums; they'd rather burn to death ethnic Russian civilian "insects" who dare to occupy buildings.

So this is the key message of the referendums. We reject the Kiev NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta. It's an illegal "government" of putschists. We are not "pro-Russian" separatists. We don't want to secede. What we want is a unified, federal and civilized Ukraine, with strong autonomous provinces.

R2P, anyone?
The Empire of Chaos wants - what else - chaos. Crucially, the Empire of Chaos now blatantly supports the deployment of an "army against their own population"; this was strictly verboten - punishable by NATO bombs or NATO-enabled jihad - in Libya and Syria, but now is just the new normal in Ukraine.

In Libya and in Syria - they tried three times at the UN - this would be the ultimate pretext for R2P ("responsibility to protect"). But in Ukraine the "terrorists" - Dubya-era terminology included - are the population, and the good guys are the Kiev neo-nazi militias. US ambassador to the UN and top R2P cheerleader Samantha Power exceeded all her previous levels of batshit craziness when she depicted the NATO junta onslaught against civilians as "reasonable" and "proportional", adding that "any of our countries" would have done the same in face of such a threat.

Berlin, for its part, wants, tentatively, to go the diplomatic way, although there's a clear split between stony Atlanticists and German captains of industry - who have identified clearly how Washington is aiming no holds barred to destroy the Russo-German economic synergy. The Empire of Chaos's game is to erect a wall between them, manifested in practice by a Russian "invasion". It's true that Moscow could easily pull a Samantha and invoke R2P to protect Russians and Russophones in Ukraine. But chessmaster Putin knows better than to invent a new Afghanistan in his western borderlands.

For Berlin all that matters is the economy. Germany will grow by 1.9% at best in 2014. With 6,200 German businesses in Russia and over 300,000 German jobs depending on two-way trade, American-style sanctions are beyond counter-productive, although Russophobia and Cold War 2.0 hysteria remains somewhat rampant.

Paris, for instance, has seen the writing on the wall. The US$1.66 billion contract to sell two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia will go ahead, as Paris diplomats admitted the cancellation - in terms of penalties and lost jobs - would hurt France much more than Russia.

Over a month ago, on April 10, Putin sent a crucial letter to the 18 heads of state (five of them outside of the EU) whose countries import Russian gas via Ukraine. He was more than explicit; Moscow could not by itself keep financing the about-to-default Ukrainian economy. Between discount after discount and failing to impose penalty after penalty, since 2009 Moscow has subsided Kiev to the tune of an astonishing $35.4 billion. Europeans, Putin wrote, would also have to come to the table.

That spectacular nullity, outgoing European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso, although agreeing a dialogue is necessary, answered that Gazprom's new rule of only allowing gas to flow to Ukraine if paid in advance was "worrying". As if any European energy major would gladly dismiss unpaid bills.

A neutral, Finlandized Ukraine would finish off for good the current mess. It's just a matter of waiting for the NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta to go broke, and frozen to death.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-01-130514.html

arpakola wrote:Rally in Ukraine's Kharkov calls for boycotting presidential elections, promises referendum
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_18/Rally-in-Ukraines-Kharkov-calls-for-boycotting-presidential-elections-promises-referendum-5911/



A traditional Sunday rally of supporters of federalization is under way in Kharkov at the foot of the Lenin monument.

An Interfax correspondent reports that the rally involves activists of Southeast and Borotba movements as well as the Communist and Progressive Socialist Parties.
"It is our task is to by no means go to elections. We should meet in this square on May 25: We won't recognize the elections," member of the coordinating council of Southeast Yury Apukhtin said.
He criticized the second all-Ukrainian national unity roundtable held in Kharkov on Saturday saying that he refused to attend it even though he had been invited. He also promised that Kharkov would hold a referendum following the examples of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_18/Rally-in-Ukraines-Kharkov-calls-for-boycotting-presidential-elections-promises-referendum-5911/

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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for restraint in imposing new sanctions on Russia, as politicians, businesses and the general public in Germany grow ever more skeptical of putting more pressure on Moscow.

Steinmeier defended the already imposed sanctions against Russia, but said that he still preferred "cooperation instead of confrontation" with Moscow, according to a Saturday interview with Thüringische Landeszeitung.

“We must avoid falling into an automatic [sanctions] mode, which leads only to a dead end and leaves no more policy options,” Steinmeier said.

The comment was made the same day Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia appealed for toughening sanctions, including imposing “preventive” ones, against Russia in an interview to another German newspaper, Die Welt.

The idea of slapping Moscow with any further restrictions appears to be lacking popular support in Germany. That was felt earlier this week in Berlin when Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending her party’s campaign event, was booed by a rally of protesters holding signs, which read 'Europe is strong only with Russia' or 'Stop the Nazis in Ukraine.'

arpakola wrote:Odessa fire victims died from chloroform vapors — senior Ukrainian investigator
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/732210

Vann7 wrote:

arpakola wrote:Odessa fire victims died from chloroform vapors — senior Ukrainian investigator
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/732210

Wow.. that doesn't look good.. if that what i think..
Looks like a pure crime very well planned and the fire was a cover from the incident ,to make it look like
an aciddent .  And choloroform unless im mistaking is something you don't make in your garage mixing liquid bleach with
other cleaners.  Looks like a professional job.

The U.S. Congress Russian missiles aimed at destroying Satan Ukrainian companies

In an attempt to destroy the most formidable Russian missiles, the RS-20 Satan, Republicans in U.S. Congress are willing to demand that the Ukrainian company that developed ceases to cooperate with Russia, ending its existence.

The chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Rogers, is willing to submit to Congress an amendment to the proposed U.S. military spending, which would force the country's president to "negotiate with the Government of Ukraine to end the long-standing cooperation between Kiev and Moscow in the maintenance of intercontinental ballistic missiles, "writes the American website The Daily Beast . these missiles, known in NATO as RS-20 Satan (they are listed in START) treaty and called on Russia R-36М Voevoda , are by far the most powerful Russian missiles in terms of range and payload, so they are operated today by the Force Strategic Missile country. In 1991 , the year when the USSR disintegrated, Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union a powerful military industry, including the production and technology of missiles and rockets. And a true jewel of this crown was the Design Bureau Yuzhnoye Yanguel, headquartered in Dnepropetrovsk, an important factory ICBMs. Till the fearsome Voevoda is not completely replaced by the new Russian missiles Topol, Yars and other, the experts of this company performed its monitoring and extending its useful life, this being the only work that remains today. In other words, congressional Republicans are willing to demand that the U.S. Government pressure on Ukraine to 'sacrifice' one of his companies with valuable not only specialists but also dangerous for the simple reason that they are carrying nuclear ballistic missile technology. Their production stopped long ago, but the documentation on this gun is still in the company of Dnepropetrovsk, as well as other documentation intercontinental missile: Molodets the RT-23 (SS-24 Scalpel, as designated NATO), designed for installation in trains. Recall that a program of strategic missile systems SS-24 Scalpel type is already underway in China . In an interview in February the Russian newspaper "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", the former chief of staff of Russia's Strategic Missile Troop Viktor Yesin suggested that the change of power in Ukraine was not going to destroy this cooperation with the Ukrainian companies in this sector, but even if that happened, Russia would be able to keep afloat its missiles Voevoda. If the bill they want to promote approving the Republicans, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel should within 30 days submit to Congress a report on how it intends to reach U.S. these goals, remember the article in The Daily Beast.

Complete text: http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/128677-congreso-misiles-rusos-satan?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

magnumcromagnon wrote:
This is the most convincing evidence that the Pentagon's whole purpose in Ukraine was to give them an advantage in Thermonuclear first strike, if this goes through than it's clear cut act of war for a potential nuclear strike and warrants a immediate establishment of a no-fly zone to seize facilities. No amount of sanctions avoidance is worth being turned in to a super-heated irradiated pile of ash and rubble! Now I was reluctant to support an invasion of Ukraine but now if this goes through it's time to start threatening to pull out of every nuclear convention and go on the offensive!

Vann7 wrote:
I think i read somewhere Russia was replacing the SATAN missiles with more modern ones..  but in any case ,Russia will have no problem
to replace the components that Ukrainian companies produce. THe missile is not done in Ukraine ,just some parts of it.. That RUssia can produce on its own land too if they see a need. But now that Ukraine is a puppet state of US , it makes sense for Russia to accelerate and move away from the old design. I'm more worried about NATO getting S-300s and BUks missiles than the Satan missile.

Fake “Feminists” of Femen Participated in the Odessa Massacre



Fake “Feminists” of Femen Participated in the Odessa Massacre
by Steven Argue

Femen is known for bold and visually striking topless protests across Europe and North Africa. Often regarded as a feminist organization, the fact that they were started and was run by a man, Victor Svyatski, is less well known. He has recently been ousted from the leadership, but as Femen is his brainchild, he still worth looking at. Also less well known are Femen’s ties to the anti-woman Ukrainian neo-Nazi movement.

Kitty Green, a former Femen activist, describes Victor Svyatski's as the leader of the group, saying, "Once I was in the inner circle, you can't not know him. He is Femen."

Victor Svyatski would personally review potential activists to see if they were pretty enough. In addition, Brazilian supporters were denied a franchise under the brand for not having the right weight.

Kitty Green's description of Victor Svyatski's rule over the group isn't pretty, "He was quite horrible with the girls. He would scream at them and call them bitches.”

Victor Svyatski explained his male iron fist methods of leadership over the women saying, “These girls are weak.” He says this in the recent film documentary "Ukraine is not a Brothel" which outs him as the leader of the group. He further explains his position:

“They [the Femen activists] don’t have the strength of character. They don’t even have the desire to be strong. Instead, they show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them.”

This is indeed a curious attitude towards women for the male leader of a supposedly feminist organization. Yet, when one looks at the targets of Femen’s protests, the goals seem to be far more anti-immigrant and anti-Russian than one of fighting for women’s liberation. This includes their participation in the recent Odessa massacre which was a massacre of 116 anti-fascist protesters who stood up for the rights of the oppressed Russian nationality in Ukraine.

An early campaign of Femen was in Lvov Ukraine against Turkish football fans being able to visit Ukraine. In fact, they claimed that this was a threat to the genetic purity of Ukraine. Similarly, Femen leader Inna Shevchenko recently stated the reasons why the group is coming to the UK, listing:

“Prostitution, laws about immigration, Islamic extremism in UK will not escape Femen’s naked massacre now. Whether it’s Derby’s Al-madinah school or Buckingham Palace, Femen will always find the way to be where it’s needed.”

So like many on the far right, Femen’s apparent opposition to Islam playing a role in oppressing women in North Africa and the Middle East is actually part of a wider campaign against an entire group of peoples, men and women, as they try to immigrate. A reality usually ignored by this ideology is that these people are trying to immigrate from the repression, exploitation, poverty, sexist oppression, and wars largely imposed on the regions of their homelands by U.S. and European imperialism. This is U.S. and European imperialism in league with regional capitalists, dictators, and religious extremists. Immigrants flee the poverty imposed by imperialism. They also flee the Islamists the U.S. placed in power in Libya and Afghanistan by giving heavy backing to armed religious fanatics. Today the U.S. is also backing similar groups in Syria. Likewise, the U.S. also gives major support to the religious fanatics in power in Saudi Arabia, the most repressive and anti-woman government in the world.

Femen did recruit one woman from an Islamic country. This was a 19 year-old Tunisian named Amina Sboui (who was active under the alias Amina Tyler). She was threatened with being stoned to death for her bold topless acts and did spend four months in prison. Upon her release from prison, however, Amina Sboui quit the group, saying, “I do not want my name to be associated with an Islamophobic organization.” She was also concerned about the source of the group’s funding, saying:

“I don’t know how the movement is financed. I asked (Femen leader Inna Shevchenko) several times, but I didn’t get a clear answer. I don’t want to be in a movement supported by suspect money. What if it is financed by Israel? I want to know.”

Some funding sources for the group have been revealed, including the wealthy American capitalist Jed Sunden, who also founded the Kiev Post. The Kiev Post is a terrible news source that has backed U.S. imperialist intervention in Ukraine and the U.S. backed junta that came to power in the February 22nd coup. Other sources of funding for the group have also been revealed, but because the group has no transparency in funding, no complete public listing exists. There is, however, no question that the group is well funded. A Ukrainian journalist who infiltrated the group in 2012 reported on air that that group members were paid a salary of US $1,000 a month. In addition, each Parisian operation costs at least US $1,300 per woman with paid expenses including airplane tickets, hotel rooms, taxis, and food.

There is no question that large amounts of American money have been pumped into Ukrainian non-governmental organizations to carry out the U.S. sponsored coups in Ukraine that occurred in 2014 and in 2004. Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into the country through groups like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Open Society Institute (OSI), International Republican Institute (IRI), and the Freedom House. Major backers included MoveOn.org sponsor and American multi-billionaire, George Soros. In addition, Victoria Nuland, speaking for the Obama administration, bragged that the U.S. has spent five billion dollars supposedly “promoting democracy” in Ukraine. The term "democracy" is U.S. imperialist double speak for overthrowing elected governments. And like the Femen activists, the U.S. backed Maidan rioters who overthrew the elected government of Ukraine also received regular payment for protesting. Femen was also among those who supported the Maidan
protests, the February coup, the murderous neo-Nazi attack in Odessa, and Femen also has ties to the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party that came to power with two other right wing parties in the February coup.

Femen and Their Support For Mysogynistic Neo-Nazi Extremists

In 2011 Femen leaders Inna Shevchenko, Sasha Shevchenko, and Victor Svyatski can be seen at a small picket against Belarus. Flying over their heads is the red and black checkered flag of UNA-UNSO, a far right paramilitary group that merged with the neo-Nazis of Right Sector during the Maidan riots. Standing right next to Inna Shevchenko and Sasha Shevchenko is one of their Femen comrades holding a banner that is clearly marked with the logo and name of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party. The Svoboda banner reads, "Long live independent Belarus. Freedom for Ukraine", "No to red terror". Of course, these are absurd slogans for Svoboda, a neo-Nazi group that calls for executing Ukrainian Russian intellectuals without trial and endorses Nazi collaborator and mass murderer Stepan Bandera as their hero. As the Femen held Svoboda banner suggests, another campaign of Femen has been against the deformed workers state of Belarus which has avoided many economic problems found in Ukraine by continuing to maintain a planned socialist economy since the days of the Soviet Union.

The neo-Nazis of Svoboda, besides having total hatred for Ukraine’s Jews and ethnic Russians, also hate women. This was made clear when, Oleksandr Sych, as a neo-Nazi Svoboda MP in the Ukrainian parliament, introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in April 2013. Currently in Ukraine abortion is legal on demand in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. The bill introduced by Svoboda would have outlawed abortion except in rare cases like rape. When a Svoboda representative in parliament was asked what kind of proof a woman would have to show to prove rape, he reflected Svoboda’s deep seated misogyny by answering:

“I do not work in the law enforcement and do not know what a woman can or cannot prove… But first of all, [she] should lead such a lifestyle as to not be exposed to the risk of rape. In particular, [she should not be] drinking alcohol beverages in a questionable company.”

This is pure misogyny that infringes on the rights of women to control their bodies and their lives and blames the victim in cases of rape.

Likewise, Adolf Hitler opposed women’s reproductive freedom. The Nazis increased the penalty for abortion when they first came to power in 1933. In 1943, the Nazis took this a step further, making the performance of an abortion on an "Aryan" woman punishable by execution.

Obama claims to be pro-choice. Yet, in the United States he repeatedly renews the Hyde Amendment which bans public funding of abortions for poor women in the United States. Likewise, in Ukraine he backs neo-Nazis who seek to ban abortion. Similarly, the fake feminist of Femen protest for the right to abortion yet didn't protest against the Svoboda bill and have now helped bring these neo-Nazis to power through their support to the Maidan movement.

With the February coup, Svoboda has been given the positions of Prime Minister for Economic Affairs (Oleksandr Sych), Education Minister (Serhiy Kvit), Ecology Minister (Andriy Makhnyk), Agriculture Minister (Ihor Shvaiko), and Prosecutor-General of Ukraine (Oleh Makhnitsky). In addition, a cofounder of Svoboda, Andriy Parubiy, has also been given the portfolio of Secretary of National Security and Defense. Make no mistake, this is a fascist given a position of command in war that the capitalist state of Ukraine and its fascist thugs are now waging against the working class, leftists, women, Jews, and national minorities of Ukraine. Femen, by participating in the May 2nd Odessa massacre, is on the front lines of that war, and fighting on the wrong side. Where it counts in the world fight against fascism, Femen is supporting the fascists. Meanwhile, in western Europe, as if simply to confuse, Femen is staging hypocritical anti-fascist protests in places like Paris.

The subjugation of women has long been a key component of U.S. backed imperialist forces and remains the case today from the Islamists the U.S. supports in Syria to the fascists it supports in Ukraine. This is because the forces willing to align themselves with U.S. subjugation and exploitation tend to be rabid ultra-religious and anti-socialist types who have deeply engrained anti-woman hatreds.
Besides Femen support for the neo-Nazis of Svoboda, Femen also officially endorsed the three party coalition that led the Maidan movement. Those three parties included the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland Party), and UDAR. All three were united in supporting the IMF austerity demanded by their imperialist sponsors while the democratically elected government of Ukraine refused. As a result of that Maidan movement coming to power in February, the neo-Nazis of Svoboda are now part of the junta that runs Ukraine. Solutions to Euro-fascism and sexism will be found in the hard struggles of the world proletarian and socialist movements against capitalism, imperialism, sexism, and fascism, not in the absurdly contradictory actions of Femen and the coups sponsored by U.S. imperialism.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/05/19/18755970.php

AlfaT8 wrote: there still a chance that these companies may have more info about these missiles then just there parts, if that's the case then the U.S isn't trying to neutralize the Satan missile, but to steal as much info about these missiles in order to improve there current Nukes and/or make there own Satan(ish) missiles, cause it's to expensive for them to make new ones from scratch.  

What do you guys think?   

Vann7 wrote:

AlfaT8 wrote: there still a chance that these companies may have more info about these missiles then just there parts, if that's the case then the U.S isn't trying to neutralize the Satan missile, but to steal as much info about these missiles in order to improve there current Nukes and/or make there own Satan(ish) missiles, cause it's to expensive for them to make new ones from scratch.  

What do you guys think?   

Indeed you have a good point there..
Thats exactly what they want.. to make a law to justify they taking the design and the hows to make the Satan Missile ,
and even if possible work with them in US ,to produce the missiles and later test their defenses against them. Indeed there is
a problem for Russia nation security since they have many SATAN missiles still in service and that they plan to continue using until 2022. US Knowing how the engine/motor works and its heat signature will allow its interceptors to differentiate between the missile and decoys.
Which is the major pain for any defense.So Russia should start replacing the engine in the short time and creating a quick easy replace version of the missile.  What is good however is that Russia already is working in a Next generation Satan missile.


Satan SS-18 (RS-20B Voyevoda) missile is an old ICBM from the 1970s. there will be a state of the art ICBM called [ Sarmat ]  and Russia estimate will be ready for 2018. So the new Satan (Sarmat) ICBM will have technology and features more than 50 years advanced. Such lapse of time for technology is an eternity . considering we didn't have Internet or digital computers 50 years ago..   Imagine the huge improvements it could have today.

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-russia-plans-new-icbm-to-replace-cold-war-satan-missile/1812053.html

In the end ,this missiles goal to scare and nothing else. They are the heavier Nukes that Russia have that can be launched without aid from a plane and from big distances. Still in case they not used ,their Topols ,Bulavas ,Yars and stilettos are more modern and in small  groups  they can achieve the same destructive power of the Satan.

When it comes to femen ,is an experiment ,their goal is Rusophobia ,not anti Islam. I have yet to see them burning the Quran .