Quid pro quo: Bolivia for Ukraine?

I can't be the only one mystified by Moscow's apparent acquiescence to the US-sponsored coup in Bolivia. Lavrov's number two, Sergei Ryabkov, announced on Thursday that Russia would recognize Jeanine Anez as the legitimate leader of Bolivia until the next election.

Anez doesn't have any more claim to legitimacy than Juan Guaido, which is to say none. So what's going on here?

Is this a tacit acknowledgement that Bolivia is in America's legitimate sphere of influence? If so, will there be a tacit acknowledgement coming soon from the US side that Ukraine is in Russia's legitimate sphere of influence?

If nothing else, the impeachment circus in DC might get a few more folks asking questions about how "strategic" our strategic ally Ukraine really is. Five years after being gifted "democracy" by the Americans, Ukraine remains a corruption-riddled failed state.

Swapping Ukraine for Bolivia might have some appeal in certain circles.

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!

World leaders appalled with coup in Thailand; hunky-dory with coup in Ukraine

Who the hell are these "world leaders" that keep showing up in our headlines?

"World leaders", "public opinion", "international opinion",... it's all the same bushel 'o bullshit, isn't it?

When you read those words in any Western media platform what you're reading is the latest Beltway/Pentagon talking points.

"International opinion" or the "Western consensus" is code speak for Pentagon propaganda.

I suspect that the reason for being appalled about the Thai situation is that they've not yet figured out which way the winds are blowing.

What is Canadian PM Harper talking about when he talks about democracy?

The reason I frame that as a question is because I don't know.

I'm of a generation that was indoctrinated to believe that the ballot box, whatever its shortcomings, was a step forward from the bad old days of mob rule.

And it makes a certain amount of sense. Y'all put the guns down and go for a vote, and if you don't like the way the vote went, well, you suck it up and get out there and work really hard to make sure the result is different in four or five years.

What you don't do is pick up the guns and undo what just happened at the ballot box.

Stephen Harper has a record that suggests he's all about picking up the guns if you're not happy with what happened in the polling booth.

When Hamas won an election in Gaza in 2006, deemed free and fair by the international observers on the ground, Harper was the first international leader to denounce the result. Democracy is great, but only when the voters vote the right way.

When the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya was pushed aside in favour of the oligarchs in Honduras in 2009, the Harper government spoke of the putsch as a "restoration of democracy" and went on to sign a free trade deal with the new non-elected government. Democracy is great, but only when people vote responsibly.

Canada's response to the overthrow of Egypt's Morsi  was this;

Canada firmly believes that implementing a transparent democratic system that respects the voices of its citizens, and that encourages and respects the contributions of civil society and all other segments of the population—including religious minorities—is the best way to restore calm and give all Egyptians a stake in the future stability and prosperity of Egypt.
"On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the political violence of the past several days and wish a speedy recovery for those injured.
"All Egyptians have the right to live in a free, democratic and secure society"

Overthrowing a democratically elected government is "implementing a transparent democratic system."

You have to love that last line (this comes from the website of Canada's Dept. of Foreign Affairs); it's OK for the army to overthrow the democratically elected government because "all Egyptians have the right to live in a free and democratic society..."

What the fuck is that? Orwell must have had a orgasm right there in his grave!

Which brings us to Ukraine. The government of the unelected "Yats" Yatsenyuk, the result of the Nuland-Pyatt putsch well documented everywhere, was not yet 24 hours old before John Baird was on the ground in Ukraine extolling the virtues of democracy!

Mr. Baird! Mr. Harper! "Democracy" is what it's called when you elect a government...

Overthrowing an elected government is commonly known as something else!

Putin to EU: "Freeze my assets and you'll be freezing your ass"

There's a lot of big talk emanating from the EU these past few days about various sanctions that may be applied to punish Putin for his tactics in foiling US/NATO/EU designs on Ukraine. Freezing the European assets of various Russian entities seems to be one of the favorite threats being bandied about.

Look for plenty more big talk, followed by very little concrete action. The reason? Russia provides about one third of Europe's gas supply. Asking European consumers to turn down their thermostats by a third is what's known as a non-starter in diplomatic circles.

Sorry Yats!

Louis Proyect discovers not all Ukrainians were anti-semites

Take it away, Louis;

A Ukrainian protest near my building

Filed under: Ukraine — louisproyect @ 10:41 pm

Just a half-hour ago from my 13th floor apartment I saw some kind of protest march wending its way up 3^rd Avenue and headed east on 91^st Street—obviously toward the Russian Consulate that ironically is in the mansion that Columbia records executive and CP sympathizer John Hammond owned.
I understood that the yellow and blue banners were carrying the Ukrainian colors but couldn’t figure out the crescent and star banners with a red background that looked like the Turkish flag. It turns out that it was a contingent of Crimean Tatars, who after all are Turkic peoples.
I threw on my coat and followed the crowd toward 5^th and 91^st, where the Consulate is housed. It looked like a couple of thousand people there. On the way over I chatted with a young couple from Ukraine who were students here. When I raised the question of whether Maidan was a fascist plot, they looked at me like I had two heads.
Once there I noticed a guy in his 30s being interviewed by what looked like a Cable TV reporter. Since he seemed knowledgeable, I struck up a conversation with the guy, whose name is Bogdan. On the question of fascists dominating Maidan, he denied it vehemently. He then went on to talk about anti-Semitism, another charge leveled against the movement. He said that Ukrainians protected Jews during WWII and that Jewish divisions fought alongside Ukrainian units. Apparently there is some basis for this. A Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan (a title roughly equal to Cardinal from what I can gather) named Andrey Sheptytsky stood up for the Jews. This is from an article in the Ukrainian Week, an online newspaper. I have a feeling that the author’s first language is Ukrainian so some of the formulations are a bit odd but you will have no trouble understanding the main points:

In his attempts to save at least some forms of political life for his nation under occupation, Metropolitan Andrey helped establish the Ukrainian National Council in 1941 on the basis of a Council of Seniors. It also, did not live long. In February 1942 Sheptytsky’s sharp protest addressing Himmler where he judged the massive killings of Jews drove the Reichsfuhrer-SS so mad that he ordered his men to disseminate the Council. Three experts in Ukrainian issues were sent to moderate Andrey Sheptytsky, including Hans Koch, Otto Vechter, and Alfred Bizanz. However, their conversation ended up a complete disaster. The old Metropolitan scolded the visitors for how they treated the conquered nation. The offended Nazis said the “hereditary Count and aristocrat” had “bad manners”… To scare the Metropolitan, the Nazis searched his chambers looking for weapons. In response to this terror and abuse of power Sheptytsky began to save the Jews who lived in Halychyna. He hid hundreds of Jewish children, dozens of rabbis, and scrolls with Torah texts in his personal chambers at Sviatoyurska Hora, St. George Hill in Lviv, monasteries, church hospitals and orphanages. The Metropolitan risked the devastation of his church but still gave shelter to the persecuted Jews.

In the surge of WWII in late November 1942, Andrey Sheptytsky published an angry letter titled ‘Thou Shall Not Kill’ which came like thunder out of the clear blue sky. When blood shedding became a routine solution to any political problems and millions of people were turned into executioners and victims, the Metropolitan warned everyone encroaching on the life of others that God’s punishment and anathema would find them. He was particularly critical about the struggle of Ukrainian nationalist organizations against each other, labeling it fratricide and demanding that the mutual violence be stopped and a compromise be found for the sake of Ukraine. As he did not see the ways to implement political ideals of the nation, Metropolitan Sheptytsky desperately longed for bringing to life the principles of religious unity. He wrote letters to Orthodox Christians, both the clergy and intellectuals; sent his priests to the Great Ukraine; and tried to go to Kyiv to start the unity campaign. However, the German government and stubborn short-sightedness of Orthodox Church leaders hindered all his attempts.

As Bogdan and I continued our conversation, the crowd chanted “Down, down Putin” and “Peace in Ukraine”. From what I have been hearing from the Putinite left this week, you almost expected them to be singing “Deutschland Uber Alles”. Bogdan is a software developer and an extremely reasonable person. He struck me as exactly the sort of person who rallied in Kiev. Indeed, he told me that a good friend of his had been part of the protest there and got shot in the back by the secret police. He is now a paraplegic.
One of the things I try to do when confronted by a movement that does not fit into the neat boxes the dogmatic left likes to create is see it firsthand. I traveled down to Washington in 2011 to videotape a pro-Syria rally where the keynote speaker was a Palestinian professor that David Horowitz tried to get fired from a California university. The guy had been an activist for decades, including Central American solidarity and anti-apartheid work.
Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what other leftists think about Syrians and Ukrainians. I make up my own mind whether or not that makes me part of the in crowd or not. After 11 years of the SWP in a previous lifetime, I learned that is always best to think for yourself,

*****************

I have nothing to add to that except to say that I couldn't agree more; at the end of the day it's always best to think for yourself.

 

Why nobody's going to war over Ukraine

Short answer; because everybody's done their due diligence and decided it's simply not worth it.

That didn't stop a parade of neo-cons from making fools of themselves on the American Sunday morning news shows, but contrary to their alarmist exhortations none of them seriously believe that the events of the past few weeks are the first step of Putin's push to rebuild the Soviet empire.

Putin did what was entirely predictable; he has secured a perimeter around some real estate that is strategicallly important to Russia. As the leader of Russia, that was the only responsible course of action open to him.

All the claptrap about "violations of sovereignty" is not to be taken seriously, especially when it comes from US politicians, who historically have shown far less respect for the sovereignty of others than virtually any other nation on earth, a record that goes back well over a hundred years.

If Yanukovich had been something other than an incompetent dolt, he would have taken strong measures when the Nuland-Pyatt recording came to light. When you are the legitimate head of state and foreign diplomats are caught out planning your removal, there can be only one response.

The Americans should have been sent packing immediately. Instead, Yanukovich did nothing, sending the US the message that he was more concerned with preserving his own hide and his ill-got wealth than he was with leading his nation.

Thus emboldened, the string-pullers in Washington continued to ramp up the pressure, goading their "democracy activists" to ever more egregious acts of lawlessness, a process that has ended quite predictably in the current impasse.

Crimea has been returned to its historical status as an outpost of Russia. The rest of Ukraine is an economic basket case that neither the EU or Russia are particularly interested in nursing back to some semblance of health.

Nor is America. Sure, Ukraine is a great piece of the geo-strategic puzzle, and parking a few missle installations around the country would be a great anti-Russian statement.

But Putin has long seen such gestures for what they are; empty sabre-rattling.

So regardless of the blowhard rhetoric of people like Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and his French counterpart, what's done is done.

No serious person believes there will be a war over Ukraine.

Top Putin-haters hyperventilate across Sunday morning talk shows

America's top finger-waggers and table-thumpers were busy wagging and thumping their way across the full CBS/ABC/CNN/FOX spectrum this morning.

Albright, Brzezinski, Kerry, Rubio etc etc .....

The only dissenting voice in the torrent of Russophobia was a brief spot given to Professor Stephen Cohen of Princeton, whom the network bookers must have gotten confused with the more famous Steve Cohen of Connecticut.

The most hilarious quote of the day comes from John Kerry; "Russia is behaving in a 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretexts."

Golly! America hasn't behaved in such a fashion since... since the 21st century!

There is of course only one reason the American Empire crowd hates Putin. After the demise of the USSR it looked like we were on the cusp of a new thousand year Reich that would revolve around the American sun. It was the end of history as we knew it.

More than any other individual, it has been Vladimir Putin who has ruined the party, something the American Plutocracy and their allies can never forgive.

And something the rest of the planet should be grateful for.

Canadian delegation flies to Ukraine to announce $200k in aid

That's two hundred thousand dollars; or about the same as what the trip cost. But no matter; the Ukrainians are hard up and will take what they can get.

Foreign Minister Baird posted this insight on his Department's website today;

Members of the Canadian delegation walked through the Maidan and paid their respects to the fallen protesters who died for the cause of democracy. “Their sacrifice in the defence of their democracy and freedom has brought change to this country,” said Baird. “They will not be forgotten.”

That's got to be one of the more ominous developments in the evolution of democracy; overthrowing an elected government in the defence of it. Orwell would be proud. 

Elsewhere Baird waxed wise on lending Ukraine support in establishing good relations with it's ethnic minorities, due to Canada's world-reknowned expertise in the matter. Canada is especially reknowned for it's treatment of the ethnic minority otherwise known as "First Nations," treatment which is often referred to as "genocidal" among people tasked with studying such matters.

This trip and these news stories may not make a lot of sense on the face of it, but there are sound political calculations behind it. There's a federal election on the horizon in Canada, and Canada just happens to be home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world. There will be well over a million votes cast by Ukrainian-Canadians in that election.

The Harper Gang just tried to buy them off at less than a measely twenty cents per vote.

No surprises as Washington's man becomes Prime Minister of Ukraine

The revelation two weeks ago that US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland were vetting candidates to replace Ukraine's democratically elected Prime Minister caused barely a ripple at the time.

Nor is it likely to cause any now that the Pyatt-Nuland pick has miraculously emerged as the new PM!

Arseniy "Yats" Yatsenyuk may not be a household name yet, but if he's good enough for the American overlords then by golly he's certainly good enough for the people of Ukraine.