Ukraine Watch...

Mr. Fox · Post by **Mr. Fox** » 11 Sep 2014, 20:39

Russia had the temerity to challenge US petrodollar hegemony.

Saddam tried it.

Gaddafi tried it.

Assad is doing it.

Iran... China...

See a pattern?

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 11 Sep 2014, 23:52

That's what all of this is about. Which tells you what kind of economic knife edge the USA must be on to be prepared to ramp up the stakes to the point of a global super-power conflict in order to maintain their dollar hegemony. In other words, they would sooner see everyone's house burn down, including their own, before they give so much as an inch. Probably because they know full well that they have sown such deep enmity again themselves in the world, that if the rest of the world is no longer shackled to the dollar, it will take every opportunity to payback the USA for all of the heinous sins against the rest of the world it has previously committed.

We have about 60% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its’ population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." - George Kennan, former Head of the US State Department Policy Planning Staff, Document PPS23, 24th February 1948

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 12 Sep 2014, 10:10

RenewableCandy wrote:All this talk of "Russian adventurism" and "Russian genie out of the bottle" and I'm sitting here thinking, what has Russia actually done? Apart from getting blamed for downing a plane, and a few p!sshead soldiers wandering round near the border, Russia hasn't really done anything. Or have I missed something?

Orlov pointed out that Russia simply wants to be accepted as part of the global 'community'.

Mr. Fox · Post by **Mr. Fox** » 12 Sep 2014, 16:06

Did someone say 'Global Community'?

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit:

President Vladimir Putin will attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Dushanbe, the themes of which will be the situation in Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as the expansion of the SCO.

(original)

Vladimir Putin: Russia and Iran have good prospects for cooperation in economy

Russia and Iran have good prospects for cooperation in the economic sphere, in particular in the energy sector, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We have major projects that we have undertaken and do. We have good prospects for cooperation, cooperation. This applies to the energy sector, it is for the economy ", - Putin said at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.

(original)

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement re sanctions:

Russian Foreign Ministry on the statement by the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on further EU restrictive measures against Russia

2111-11-09-2014

We have the following to say regarding a statement by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on 11 September this year on the adoption of a new package of anti-Russian sanctions.

By taking this step, the European Union has made its choice against a peaceful settlement of the internal crisis in Ukraine, which all responsible forces in Europe should have supported instead.

Brussels and the leaders of the EU member-countries now need to give a clear answer to their citizens as to why they are putting them under the risk of confrontation, economic stagnation and unemployment.

Give the people a chance for peace.

Finally, this gives some insight into the situation on the ground in Novorussia: Igor Strelkov briefing/interview (11/9) with English subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oRcrAasjGY

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 12 Sep 2014, 16:33

Mr. Fox wrote:Did someone say 'Global Community'?

Not me.

Mr. Fox · Post by **Mr. Fox** » 12 Sep 2014, 17:03

Guess it was Orlov, then.

Here's one for the scrapbook:

German TV Shows Nazi Symbols on Helmets of Ukraine Soldiers

Germans were confronted with images of their country’s dark past on Monday night, when German public broadcaster ZDF showed video of Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols on their helmets in its evening newscast. In a report on the fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, Moscow correspondent Bernhard Lichte used pictures of a soldier wearing a combat helmet with the "SS runes" of Hitler’s infamous black-uniformed elite corps. A second soldier was seen with a swastika on his gear. “Volunteer battalions from nearly every political spectrum are reinforcing the government side,” the ZDF correspondent said in his report.

(Here's a bit of background reading for anyone who is tempted to think that referring to the Kiev Junta forces as 'Nazis' is hyperbole).

raspberry-blower · Post by **raspberry-blower** » 18 Sep 2014, 21:59

While the West tries to frame the separatists of downing flight MH-17 the Russian Union of Engineers have done their own investigations. They categorically discount that an SAM brought down the ill fated airliner:

Russian Union of Engineers Accuse Ukrainian Air Force of Downing MH-17

At the very least the report should be broadly discussed in western media, and western experts asked to refute what parts of it they find fault with

Don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen though..

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 22 Sep 2014, 08:18

I've only just read the report. It certainly fits the evidence rather than the prejudices of western politicians and media. If you haven't yet I really recommend the read. That it has not been more widely discussed is quite an indictment of our system.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 26 Sep 2014, 11:09

Realism starts to bite again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29374151

Hungary stops exporting (imported Russian) gas to Ukraine. Clearly Russia told them that they would not supply enough gas for it to be sold on, and Hungary put their own needs first.

Mr. Fox · Post by **Mr. Fox** » 26 Sep 2014, 13:13

Gazprom’s contracts with its European customers do not allow them to re-export gas to a third party, Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak reiterated in an interview with German business newspaper Handelsblatt published Friday.

“The contract does not allow for re-exports. We hope that our European partners will adhere to the agreements. Only this can guarantee uninterrupted supplies to European consumers," Novak said.

http://rt.com/business/190888-russia-gas-europe-export/

'Dictatorship of Law'

Nice map from RT - colour coded to show dependence on gas imported from Russia:

Also, this was funny:

"The information war for Ukraine" - Satirical German program "Die Anstalt" (Eng Subs)

Mr. Fox · Post by **Mr. Fox** » 03 Oct 2014, 12:33

War Severs Ukraine’s Industrial Arteries as Economy Sinks

The bloody conflict in Ukraine’s east is severing the arteries that connect the nation’s economy.

The effects are being felt hundreds of miles from the unrest in industries as different as electricity and food processing. Power plants at the other end of the country are being starved of coal because of disruptions to mining, while in Kiev, one of Ukraine’s biggest poultry producers is looking abroad for incubatory eggs after output was halted at its facility near the war-ravaged city of Donetsk.

Months of fighting have left pro-Russian rebels in control of a swathe of Ukraine’s easternmost regions, which generated almost a quarter of industrial output at the start of the year. The knock-on effects of idle factories are seeping through an economy at risk of a 10 percent contraction in 2014, according to Ukraine’s central bank. The International Monetary Fund says $17 billion may not be enough to avert a default.

$17bn is ~10% of pre-coup GDP

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 08 Nov 2014, 13:32

bump

Ukraine is now at the end of the beginning.

It would be more accurate to call this election the ”battle of the billionaires”. All of the political parties that got representation in the new Rada are puppets of the different billionaire oligarchs. It is these people who really call the shots in collaboration with their masters in Washington.

Nothing new there.

any modern people of left or communist views are obliged to one degree or another to take part in the fight against the Ukrainian fascism, as it threatens not only the people of Ukraine, but also threatens to plunge the world into a major war.

Source

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 08 Nov 2014, 15:06

Over the last two or three weeks, the barrage of anti Russian propaganda has stepped back up a gear. It's all getting very subtle now as the initial crude onslaught earlier in the year backfired somewhat. Now it is taking the form of stories put out on the morning and evening news about the old cold war, the East German Stasis, the latest European book prize to an anti soviet cold war novel etc etc......

We are being encouraged to resurrect our old fears since the new ones being pushed at us haven't worked.

Everything in the world, at the moment, is screaming "End-Game" to me.

Tarrel · Post by **Tarrel** » 25 Nov 2014, 10:32

A succinct and (by BBC standards) fairly balanced article by John Simpson, summarising the situation with Ukraine:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30177725

Why has it all blown up like this? And how dangerous could it become?

Part of the answer lies in the months immediately after the ignominious collapse of Marxism-Leninism in Russia, in the wake of the failed KGB coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991.

It was an extraordinary time. There was no government, and civil servants and senior policemen simply stayed at home. The economy, such as it was, seemed on the point of collapse.

Western political leaders were horrified. Special envoys were sent to Moscow to negotiate with the only Russian leader still standing: Boris Yeltsin.

At that stage, they would have promised him anything.

Privately, some of them seem to have told him that they would treat post-Communist Russia as a close friend and ally.

But there were other forces at work.

Triumphalism
What President Eisenhower had once called America's "military-industrial complex" was in no mood to offer the hand of friendship to a fallen ideological enemy.

There was a lot of triumphalism about.

Boris Yeltsin received little help from the West
The US system had defeated the Soviet one, and some people were determined to rub it in.

Countries like Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria were actively encouraged to join the Western alliance.

Nato's territory now went right up to Russia's own borders.

No US leader seemed to worry what would happen once Russia got on its feet again.

raspberry-blower · Post by **raspberry-blower** » 22 Jan 2015, 11:56

It's kicked off again

RT: Covert team caught after shelling kills at least 9 in Donetsk