Much has been written about Ukraine this year after an illegal Putsch overthrew the democratically elected President, then saw a motley clique of Fascists, terrorists and thugs rise to power amid a flurry of anti-Russian edicts and calls for the extermination of Russians and Jews on the streets of Kiev. As Winter approaches, along with the New Year celebrations, let us remember the key issues.
There are four main points to remember from the Ukraine story in 2014, as a Western corporate media along with its activists try to paint a rosy picture of post-Putsch Kiev, one which unfortunately ignores the stark reality I am about to outline below.
The first point is the legal aspect of the Ukraine story; the second is that Crimea is Russian territory; the third is the hypocritical and ridiculous stance of NATO and its criticism of Russia for giving rise to concerns over the Black Sea - who surrounds half of the Black Sea to the South and West? The fourth point is the nature of NATO itself, what it represents and how it provokes situations to perpetuate itself.
The legal aspect of the situation in Ukraine
After President Viktor Yanukovich tried to protect the livelihoods and jobs of Ukraine's youth by refusing to sign an agreement with the European Union which was, and would be increasingly, one-sided and which would see Ukraine's factories close, would see its farmers paid to bury their crops and their fishermen subsidized to dock their fleets, those behind the Orange Revolution went back to work.
What ensued was bedlam on the streets of Kiev, where a wave of anti-Russian hysteria was skillfully mixed with a movement to oust the President and bring Ukraine into the western fold. Shots were fired against the police, shots were fired from the sixth floor of Hotel Ukraine in Independence Square against the protesters below, to incriminate the police, create victims and launch a cause. Forgotten was the agreement signed by the Opposition to hold early Presidential elections in December, 2014.
In the event, President Yanukovich chose to remove himself from the scene so as to save lives, leaving his country to a motley clique of Fascists, criminals, terrorists, racists and traitors who have since ruined the future of millions of Ukrainian citizens and witnessed the virtual disintegration of the country. Fascist massacres ensued, for example, in Mariupol (May 10), in Donetsk (October 20) and in Odessa (May 2). These massacres are well documented on the Internet for those who wish to research for themselves and provide a telling rebuff to those callous commentators who state that such massacres never existed. Perhaps these commentators would like to visit the said cities and state loud and clear that the massacres never happened.
Crimea is Russia
The region called Crimea has changed hands many times over the years but under all diplomatic protocols following the lines starting with Westphalia and finishing with Helsinki, the underlying current would place Crimea, according to international, regional and national law, inside the Russian Federation. Therefore all those complaints of a Russian "invasion" are ridiculous, as ridiculous as the ignorance of those who expound such claims.
The history of Crimea is also well documented on the internet, and it is not necessary to retrace these steps in this opinion article. Suffice it to say that when the democratically elected President of Ukraine was removed in a Putsch which did not respect any of the three underlying legal precepts for such an event, then the body with the power to enforce law in the Republic of Crimea became its legislative assembly, and this organism called the referendum in which the population voted en masse to return to the Russian Federation.
NATO concerns regarding Crimea and Black Sea
It appears that NATO follows the same arrogant and intrusive line as those western European countries and their abortions overseas did during Imperialist times, when lines were drawn on maps and whole territories and peoples were allocated to London, Paris and so on, a line of action which Washington seems to have inherited in its genes.
But how can NATO seriously be concerned, and how can NATO indeed be taken seriously, if Crimea belongs to Russia and anyway, does NATO not control the southern and western flanks of the Black Sea? NATO's concern is that the entire Ukraine project was about wresting the Crimea bases from Russia, just as the Syrian project was about taking the Russian Mediterranean Sea base at Tartus. So the score today is, in soccer terms, Russia 2 NATO 0.
And the more NATO tries, the more humiliating it will get.
Why? Because the Russian Federation is evidently more and more walking in tandem with the hearts and minds of humankind. Those sitting in Ohio, in London, in western Europe, who do not have regular contact, on a daily basis, with India, with Pakistan, with Indonesia, with Africa, with Latin America, as I do, could perhaps be forgiven for wallowing in their ignorance, although not so for speaking from positions of arrogance. After all, what has western Europe and its abortions always done? And look at the wonderful legacy these countries leave.
A balance of power is governed by a balance of good intentions and this relies on foundations cemented by goodwill. Despite provocations right from the beginning of the USSR, Russia has demonstrated time and again a degree of patience and deference which is at times difficult to understand, but this has been a mainstay of its policies. Did Russia use atom bombs against civilians? Did Russia strafe civilians with Napalm? Did Russia support Fascist regimes committing massacres? The answer is no, no and no yet today NATO is based around the FUKUS Axis (France-UK-US) and the ASS (Anglo-Saxon Syndicate of UK, US and Australia), nations supporting one another in their continued top-down, intrusive, arrogant and xenophobic foreign policy and turning a blind eye to their horrific past histories.
The Soviet Union did not collapse. It was dissolved as per its Constitution in a top-down approach without public consultation, causing massive riots. The Soviet Union provided free and excellent maternal care, free and excellent basic, middle and secondary education, free and excellent higher education, illiteracy rates of near to zero, then a guaranteed job, a free home = free housing, free electricity, free gas, free water, fixed rate telephone charge, subsidized or free transportation, free and proficient healthcare, including dental care, free basic necessities, even free vodka. In many cases a car was provided, gasoline was free. Social mobility was guaranteed, you could walk anywhere any time of day or night, you had leisure time activities and even training in music, ballet, sports, acrobatics, you name it, provided for free, there were youth movements, the Pioneers, Komsomol and so on, there was placement to work abroad if you applied, there was security on the streets, you did not find them crawling with drug addicts, there was safety of the State, and there was an external aid program amounting to 250 billion USD per annum to help countries freed from the yoke of Imperialist tyranny.
NATO, the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization
What is NATO? It is the cutting edge, the bully boy, the policy maker, the bailiff who bangs on the door and implements the projects of the five lobbies which control its policies: banking, energy, weapons, pharmaceuticals and food. If we see that NATO's annual budget is one point two trillion USD each and every year, then we see why this organism needs to perpetuate itself, because without it, the lobbies would not have an easy means on imposing themselves on a global basis.
NATO lied time and time again about expanding Eastwards. Russia today is listening to those of us who for decades have been saying "Don't trust the bastards". Look at Russia's past history, look at the past history of the West and NATO, and we see very clearly that on one side we have a bloc which follows the precepts of right and reason and on the other, a clique of sycophantic lackeys running to pander to the whims of those pulling their strings. Their interest never was the people, but rather, their pockets.
In military terms, NATO is a joke. Like all cowards and bullies, it only attacks defenceless states without a credible air force and bombs the crap out of civilian structures with military hardware to impose its rule. Power games played out by those who would otherwise be powerless and who are indeed powerless when confronted by someone who stands up to face them. When happens? Why, NATO runs screaming as we saw in Georgia, NATO backs down as we saw in Syria and NATO dare not meet Russia eyeball to eyeball as we see in Ukraine. We could say that every single time NATO squares up to Putin, then they cower, duck and run then hide in their collective arrogance, belligerence and chauvinism, an ABC of the unwanted in today's world. Some one billion people may support them, 6 billion do not.
I sincerely hope that future generations judge us wisely and see the writing on the wall explaining these situations as they are and not the scribbling of the ignorant inventing stories, justifying massacres or denying they even existed. A more callous, evil and cynical approach to international relations would be very hard to conjure up.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey*
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications and media groups printed and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.
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