Zelensky no stranger to honoring Nazis

Amateur Hour continues in Ottawa. Today was spent mostly buck-passing, finger-pointing, and donning sackcloth and ashes over the grave insult we inflicted on Zelly by having him applaud a 98 year old veteran who once “fought with the Nazis.” Relax, Ottawa! Since Zelensky became president, he has awarded Ukraine’s highest honor, “Hero of Ukraine,” to members of at least three neo-Nazi groups: Aidar Battalion, Right Sektor, and Azov. Here’s a story from Israel’s Haaretz news site about the Nazi bona fides of Azov. Stories such as that were quite common in mainstream Western media before February 2022. The Guardian, NYT, Time, Newsweek and others frequently ran stories about the rich tradition of Ukrainian antisemitism and white supremacy permeating Ukrainian nationalist groups. I’m sure no offence was taken. The man did fight Russia, after all, and that’s all that matters in these dark days when the fate of the Free World rests on Zelly’s shoulders. He’s got bigger worries than what’s happening in the Ottawa clown show.

Down the bunny hole in Kyiv; all sides in cahoots with Putin!

We're all well aware that Putin is behind the so-called separatists in the Donbas region, because it's frankly impossible to read any news item about Ukraine in any Western media without being repeatedly reminded of that "fact."

Trying to find out what's going on in the fallout between the Poroshenko government and Right Sector boss Dmytro Yarosh is a challenge exponentially more difficult. Well over a week has passed since tensions between the US installed Poroshenko and the country's main ultra-nationalist militia exploded into violence, and it's a week ago today that the President delivered his ultimatum that they be disarmed.

So how's that going? Impossible to tell. It's not a story visible in Western media. I did however make a startling discovery while perusing The Ukrainian Weekly. Turns out those Pravyi Sektor thugs who have been fighting Putin's puppets in eastern Ukraine are themselves stooges of the great chess-master in the Kremlin!

But wait, there's more! The same article informs us that Poroshenko himself has been making secret deals with Putin! Ergo, we are now at the threshold of a three-way civil war in Ukraine, and all three sides are secretly sponsored by Putin!

We are all Ukrainians?

Diane Francis has reiterated that daft claim, first made by US warmonger-at-large Senator John McCain a year and a half ago, in a story at Huffington Post.

In what is essentially a thinly-veiled anti-Putin propaganda piece, Francis nevertheless is forced to admit that it was Ukrainian oligarchs, and not Putin, who destroyed the Ukraine's economy post 1991. She may not have noticed, but the oligarch who sits in the big chair today is and always has been part of that club.

So why blame Putin?

Because gratuitous Putin-bashing gets an automatic free pass from lazy editors (or what is more likely, non-existent editors, as media owners fatten the bottom line by thinning out the payroll...) across Western media, and therefore serves, in the case of this article, as cover for some even more odious propagandizing; the presentation of ultra-nationalist far-right ideologues as homespun activists fighting Putin's aggression.

Dmytro Yarosh, leader of Right Sector, is passed off as a sincere patriot, which he well may be, but "ultra-nationalist" tends to be a code word for something darker, something synonymous with "fascist." His star has certainly been rising in post-coup politics, to the point where in April he was made an official adviser to the Defense Minister. In the event that the West decides to arm Ukraine, he could well decide how those weapons will be deployed.

In a news event virtually invisible in the West, Yarosh's armed Right Sector militia was involved in a shoot-out with Ukrainian police last week. There is a power struggle underway now between Poroshenko and Yarosh, and if Yarosh triumphs, Poroshenko's days are numbered.

Extremist forms of nationalism find fertile ground in difficult times, as has been repeatedly proven in the past 100 years of European history.

Anyway, we're not Ukrainians and we don't aspire to be, Big Steve's relentless toadying to the Ukraine-Canadian voter population notwithstanding. In fact, maybe Ukrainians should aspire to be a little more like Canadians. We too have a substantial minority in the east who prefer a different language and value different cultural traditions. Are we appealing for international support so we can "defend" ourselves by bombing them into oblivion?

No. Instead, we work hard to make a strength of our diversity.

That's not ever going to be on the agenda of rabid racists like Yarosh.

Poroshenko's last stand?

Those of a conspiratorial bent will find it beyond curious that on the very day that Ukrainian oligarch-cum-President Petro Poroshenko is facing his gravest challenge yet, his Prime Minister, Nuland-Pyatt fave "Yats" Yatsenyuk just happens to be visiting Washington!


Coincidence?


After Saturday's shootout between police and a gang of Right Sector neofascists, Poroshenko has ordered the disarming of all non-state militias. This is going to be a tall order, mainly because his "War on Terrorists" in the east of the country depends on those same armed militias to do the heavy lifting. Leadership of the Right Sector responded immediately with a firm negatory, and instead called on Poroshenko to fire the local governor and arrest the policemen who had the gall to shoot at them!


So Poroshenko has painted himself into a corner. He has issued an ultimatum, which is rejected out of hand. As the leader of Ukraine, he now needs to enforce that order or lose what little credibility he still has.


Yatsenyuk, meanwhile, was in Washington ostensibly to drum up enthusiasm among would-be investors. They too deserve to know if Ukraine is governed by the rule of law or by armed gangs.

Canadian complicity in Ukraine coup revealed

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Big Steve and Bullshittin' Baird were all over that glorious Ukrainian revolution that the Nuland-Pyatt putsch had sprung on the unsuspecting Ukrainian people... they thought they were on their way to joining NATO and the EU!

Guess the joke is on them!

Instead, a year and a half later, the nation teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, and the fascist militias are in open revolt against the not-so-legitimate government of our bumboy Petro Poroshenko.

Sucks to be a Uke, but at least billionaire Poroshenko's companies are worth more than ever.

He's scheduled to visit Ottawa this week. No doubt we'll be seeing lots of headlines about "Putin's aggression."


(Correction: It's PM "Yats" Yatsenyuk visiting Ottawa tomorrow, not President Poroshenko.)