Russia, the Ukraine, and US interests - the reality

 

Well, as was all too predictable, Russia has recognized the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and has sent troops "at their request" to "safeguard Russian people within their borders" - or whatever the excuse du jour may be.

Frankly, I don't blame the Russians.  I'm not saying I support them, but I understand why President Putin has done this.  Last year he published an article titled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he analyzed in depth - from the Russian point of view, of course - why Ukraine was a natural partner of Russia, and denounced the deliberate efforts made by outside influences (take a bow, President Obama) to drive a wedge between them.  It's worth reading that article in full to get some background on his position, and Russia's.  I don't think it's all true - there's as much propaganda in it as there is in the yammering of the Biden administration about the issue - but there's nevertheless a great deal of fact in it, which we'd do well to remember.  Read it with a discriminating, informed eye.

It's undeniable that the USA played a major role in fomenting the 2014 coup that overthrew the democratically elected President of Ukraine and replaced him with a far more pro-Western figure.  For more information, see a very in-depth article (undoubtedly biased towards the Russian point of view, but nevertheless containing a lot of solid, hard fact that can be verified) titled "How and why the U.S. Government Perpetrated the 2014 Coup in Ukraine".  The role of Senators McCain and Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, has been openly discussed for years.

It's not the first time this country interfered in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, and it certainly wasn't the last.  The most recent example appears to have been the failed "color revolution" attempt in Kazakhstan at the beginning of this year.

Virtually no one knows about it. But last December, another coup was discreetly thwarted in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Kyrgyz intel sources attribute the engineering to a rash of NGOs linked with Britain and Turkey.

That introduces an absolutely key facet of The Big Picture: NATO-linked intel and their assets may have been preparing a simultaneous color revolution offensive across Central Asia.

On my Central Asia travels in late 2019, pre-Covid, it was plain to see how western NGOs – Hybrid War fronts – remained extremely powerful in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Yet, they are just one nexus in a western nebulae of Hybrid War fog deployed across Central Asia, and West Asia for that matter. Here we see the CIA and the US Deep State crisscrossing MI6 and different strands of Turkish intel.

There's more at the link.  Again, it's a pro-Russian source, but concentrate on the hard facts that can be verified.  They add up to a mountain of evidence.  If you follow the work of US and European NGO's (non-governmental organizations), it's very clear many of them are being financed by the same sources and working to a coordinated plan of action.  They're not just working for the good of the local people, but for unnamed, invisible influences elsewhere.

Given the torrents of propaganda being unleashed by both sides in the Ukraine imbroglio, it's very difficult to know which side is "right" and which is "wrong".  As far as I'm concerned, Ukraine is so endemically corrupt that it's impossible to trust or believe anything its government says.  Never forget that President Biden and his family made at least millions, and potentially hundreds of millions, out of that nation through bribery, corruption and influence-peddling.  Remember what Biden said about his strong-arming the government there to abandon its investigation of his son's corruption?

(If the embedding doesn't work, you'll find the video here.)

Put that alongside Hunter Biden's infamous demand for "10% for the big guy" in connection with a Chinese business deal, and a lot of things become clearer.  It's not just the Bidens, either.  As Sundance notes (bold, underlined text is my emphasis):

In the bigger picture I don’t think many Americans outside the DC beltway give a flip about internal Ukrainian squabbles and Russia’s support for the Eastern Ukrainian independence effort.  However, inside the DC beltway Ukraine is very important, stunningly important, because Ukraine functions as the corrupt money laundry operation for DC politicians to receive taxpayer kickbacks from their financial support into Ukraine.

Quite so.  If you want to know why the USA is so deeply invested in maintaining the current administration in Ukraine, follow the money - particularly the corrupt money - flowing to politicians and their families in the USA.  Look into how many children of US politicians are working in, with or for Ukrainian companies.  We're talking potentially billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.

Contrast that with President Putin's statement on Russia's recognition of the breakaway regions of Ukraine.  Go read it in full.  Sure, he's peddling propaganda talking points along with facts - just like everybody else is doing.  Sift through the propaganda, ferret out the facts, and verify them.  (A good example of independent fact-checking and propaganda-debunking over the current situation in Donetsk and Luhansk may be found here.  It's worth reading.)

Read Putin's statement in the light of recent German revelations that Russia was, indeed, promised by the West in the early 1990's that NATO would not expand eastward - a promise that was violated almost from the moment it was made.  For more information, see:

• Newly Declassified Documents: Gorbachev Told NATO Wouldn't Move Past East German Border
• Der Spiegel publishes proof that the West promised no eastward expansion of NATO
• Russia’s belief in Nato ‘betrayal’ – and why it matters today

If I were in Russia's shoes right now, I'd be feeling very threatened by European and American advances through Eastern Europe to my borders, despite those promises.  Ukraine would look like the last major domino to fall before potentially hostile forces lined my entire western border.  I'd do everything I could to prevent that, in my own national interest - so it's very hard to blame President Putin for doing precisely that.

Some weeks ago I asked, "Someone please tell me: what compelling national security interest does the USA have in Ukraine???"  Nobody has yet answered that question to my satisfaction - probably because there isn't a satisfactory answer.  Michael Yon has gone so far as to call the Ukraine crisis "a diversion" from our myriad internal problems.  I agree with him.  Just as President Xi can use Taiwan to distract Chinese from their country's internal problems, and President Putin can use Ukraine for the same purpose, so the Biden administration is using it to drown out the other issues that plague us, and which they're powerless and/or incompetent to solve.

I'll leave the last word to Miggy at Gun Free Zone.

If I may make a suggestion, Could we send to Ukraine all those new military people with special adjective and pronouns with training in Gender Fluidity and Anti Transphobic legislation who are supposed to be better than true soldiers? The proof is in the pudding or rather, the battlefield.

Uh-huh.  From a previous post, here you are, Miggy:

Peter