U.S. Trained Fascists To Storm Kiev
US forces to hold exercises in Ukraine
The United States plans to send soldiers to Ukraine in April for training exercises with units of the country's national guard.Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the units to be trained include the Azov Battalion, ...
...
Avakov said the training will begin April 20 at a base in western Ukraine near the Polish border and would involve about 290 American paratroopers and some 900 Ukrainian guardsmen.
Volunteer Ukrainian unit includes Nazis
Though the 900-member Azov Brigade adds needed manpower to repulse the rebels, members who say they are Nazis are sparking controversy, and complaints of abuses against civilians have turned some residents against them.A drill sergeant who would identify himself only as Alex wore a patch depicting Thor's Hammer, an ancient Norse symbol appropriated by neo-Nazis, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In an interview with USA TODAY, he admitted he is a Nazi and said with a laugh that no more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis. He said he supports strong leadership for Ukraine, like Germany during World War II, ...
The U.S. military will train east European Nazis to fight east-Ukrainian "Russians". One wonder how well that will end. The last armies trained by the U.S. military were the Georgian, Afghan and Iraqi one. All turned out to be major failures in combat. All were prone to abuse of civilians, prisoners and other crimes.
The training will start on April 20. That is Hitler's birthday celebrated by Nazi groups like Azov. The decision to train fascist Ukrainian national guard troops instead of the Ukrainian military smells like a White House interference. Who else would up with such a childish idea of needling Russia?
Then again ... At least those Azov folks may in the end hurt the right people:
He vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.
Posted by b on April 1, 2015 at 13:45 UTC | Permalink
Thanks b, mmmmmmmm, the Empire's plans proceed unabated. More misery for the people of the Ukraine. ALL in the name of ever increasing profits for the Globalists.
Posted by: ben | Apr 1 2015 14:10 utc | 2
Führers Geburtstag 20.April - what a great starting date.
Great job at creating a new East West divide - nothing better to control people.
Next stop: mind bending orthodox "Christian " radicalism in Russia
Posted by: Christoph | Apr 1 2015 14:25 utc | 3
I kept waiting to read, "April fools!" Then again, you couldn't make this stuff up.
Posted by: Hugo First | Apr 1 2015 15:19 utc | 4
Then again ... At least those Azov folks may in the end hurt the right people:
He vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.
Posted by b on April 1, 2015 at 09:45 AM | Permalink
Sound's remarkably like the Anglo-Zionist Empire's Fake-"Jihadi"-proxy army ISIS, continually mouthing off about how much they really really really hate Israel and the Zionists, in order to keep up the ridiculous pretence that they actually have some independence from the Anglo-Zionist Empire
Posted by: Lucas Brake-Pipe | Apr 1 2015 15:21 utc | 5
Oh yes, those nasty old Orthodox redicals ...
The Lateran Treaty was one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, settling the "Roman Question". They are named after the Lateran Palace, where they were signed on February 11, 1929. The Italian parliament ratified them on June 7, 1929. Italy was then under a Fascist government, but the succeeding democratic governments have all upheld the treaty. In 1947, the Lateran Pacts were incorporated into the democratic Constitution of Italy.
To commemorate the successful conclusion of the negotiations, Mussolini commissioned the Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation), which would symbolically link the Vatican City to the heart of Rome.
ALL WWII FASCIST STATES WERE ROMAN CATHOLIC. WITH SPAIN BEING, AHEM, THE ONLY SUCCESS STORY.
Posted by: Alberto | Apr 1 2015 15:25 utc | 6
Prior to Minsk II when the Ukrainian Army was getting its clocked cleaned by the NAF, this was the idea floated in a number of NYT stories: Ukraine must create a new army because of the poor performance of the current one. The U.S. is building that new army around a fascist kernel. With Obama lifting restrictions on Sisi's police state and the Abrams tanks and F-16s on their way to Egypt for eventual use in Yemen, how can all this not end up becoming globalized total war?
Posted by: Mike Maloney | Apr 1 2015 16:01 utc | 7
It seems as though the Yanks have revived the notion behind "The School of the Americas" era, where American Special Forces operatives would train up various battalions of "security forces", National Guard, "Presidential Guards", whatever, expressly to support Latin American fascistic dictatorships and to keep their respective countries on-side in the "war against Communism" in the Western Hemisphere.
So, today we have boatloads of Special Forces contingencies in the Middle East, in Africa, in South Asia, and now in Eastern Europe or in the former States of the Soviet Union (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, et al), all with the specific task of supporting autocrats and dictators against their own respective peoples. And the gullible US public is being sold this as "advancing the democratic agenda"...so blatant and so pathetic. This to promote US "leadership", and to create proxy military forces to advance US "strategic goals". Blowback, blowback, we don't see no steenkin' blowback!
Posted by: barrisj | Apr 1 2015 17:08 utc | 8
Alberto at 6
Germany was both Protestant and Catholic. The Catholic Centre Party opposed the Nazis; I believe you'll find the Lutheran state churches of northern Germany the most accepting of their regime. Lutheran Scandinavia produced generous nos. of collaborators and volunteers for the Waffen-SS "Viking" Division. Bulgaria and Romania both had collaborationist governments drawn from local fascists.
en1c at 1
I think they plan on using brute force to keep power. There are several reports at Fort Russ about about a purge and revamping at the SBU.
Nalivaychenko, its leader, says it's going to be schooled in the Banderaist/OUN school of political repression. And here is a comprehensive guide to their methods.
Meanwhile, searches at the Ministry of the Interior have begun.
At Russia Insider, Rostislav Ishchenko argues that War in the East Is the Only Thing Preventing Ukraine Collapse. Which will not be pretty when it happens.
There is nothing good in store for Ukraine. I think during this year it will sustain a military defeat and the disintegration of its army, another coup and the collapse of what is left of its government agencies, all-out chaos, the total destruction of the economy and the start of subsistence farming for survival.... Survivors will be set back a century in terms of living standards and civilization. This is why foreign intervention to restore law and order to Ukraine after the collapse of Project Ukraine will be inevitable.
I hope he's exaggerating about that century thing.
Some good news -- miners near Kharkov are fighting to be paid.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 2 2015 2:23 utc | 9
04/01/2015 23:59
Eduard Basurin, the Deputy Commander in Chief of Donetsk Republic Defense, read out to journalists excerpts of an intelligence obtained plan of Ukrainian special operation, which, in particular designated “special mobile groups to assault key infrastructure objects and crowded places”.
Basurin said that this plan “of a special operation in sector B has been approved by the Ukrainian side and is being implemented". Therefore, the end of March intelligence about sending approximately thirty five Ukrainian subversion-reconnaissance group to areas of Shirokino and Donetsk to arrange provocations under disguise of combatants is confirmed.
According to the presented documents, the subversives were also tasked with liquidation of Donetsk Republic leaders, spreading panic among locals, opening random mortar and small arms fire from Donetsk and the airport toward settlement Peski, where positions of the Ukrainian forces are installed.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 2 2015 3:39 utc | 10
There is absolutely no coincidence in picking dates to the anglo-zionazi bombing campaigns and genocidal wars.
Germany´s old Nazi friends in Croatia had the honour to pick the date to NATO´s 78 day´s of onslaught on Yugoslavia/Serbia and to nobody´s surprise they choosed the day Hitler Bombed Belgrade.
It´s all about Drang Nach Osten....
Posted by: mikhas | Apr 2 2015 6:58 utc | 11
@6
Fascism is a play on the fasces - bundles of ash-sticks with an axe tied within symbolizing the Roman State's power over life and limb - I think. Licters bearing fasces, I believe, ran before members of the Roman hierarchy in numbers proportionate to their rank, sweeping the streets clean of plebs when on their excursions. The Roman Catholic Church - complete with basilicas the world around, for instance - is the recreation of the Roman Empire in the 'spiritual' realm, with the bishop of Rome as Emperor. It is only natural that it embraces its top-down mirror images in the 'material' world whenever and wherever they pop up. Its the Two Thousand Year Reich, and was friendly toward the (13 year?) Thousand Year Reich. It likes America, too, in it's (14 year) New American Century.
@10
The NAZI Ukraine is like a drunk lurching around after his idee fixe, bent on its destruction. It's dead on its feet. Without the war against the 'subhumans' it would be flat on its back unconscious. I hope it soon will be.
How can it be that ... Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iraq, Yemen ... the whole world has - duh!- not yet discovered that all this devastation and destruction is the product of the regime fronted by the Nihilist Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and that it is the neo-lib/neo-cons of the West, United, with the USS on point, who are directly responsible for the serial destruction that is reducing our world to dust?
Might it not be time to just say NO!
Posted by: jfl | Apr 2 2015 8:14 utc | 12
@9
The purge going on in Western Ukraine may be the sign that they have given up on war with the East ... that would have been their instruction from the CIA, in that case ... and are preparing to internalize the war. I'm probably quoting J Hawk or K Rus. Everything is so wrong in Ukraine ... and getting daily wronger ... that they desperately need some overarching threat to 'keep everyone's mind off the pain'. The poor, poor Ukrainians.
I don't think the author at Russia Insider meant that the collapse of the Ukraine would last 100 years, 'just' that the 'lifestyle' of the Ukrainians would be more similar to their lifestyle 100 years ago than to their 21st century fantasies. The ground is the place to build up from. And slowly and thoughtfully, with an appreciation for what is real and what is not, is the way to go.
It is not only the Ukrainians who will be in this position in the near future. I agree with Mike Maloney@7 ... "how can all this not end up becoming globalized total war?"
Posted by: jfl | Apr 2 2015 8:27 utc | 13
@rm #9:
I believe you'll find the Lutheran state churches of northern Germany the most accepting of [the Nazi] regime.
You just can't help shilling for the Whore of Babylon Roman Catholic Church can you? Roman Catholics are brought up to hate Lutherans (in the US; I don't believe that's the case anymore in Germany), and evidently, you have not been able to shake off that aspect of your upbringing. If you can't document your claims that are based on nothing but prejudice, don't make them.
Hitler was an Austrian, so he was a Catholic. Until they gained power in Berlin, the Nazis' base was Munich, the main city of utterly Catholic Bavaria. The north German (and hence Protestant) city of Lübeck lost its status as a free city because the people of Lübeck did not like the Nazis:
In 1937 the Nazis passed the Greater Hamburg Act, whereby the nearby Hanseatic City of Hamburg was expanded to include towns that had formerly belonged to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. To compensate Prussia for these losses (and partly because Adolf Hitler had a personal dislike for Lübeck after it refused to allow him to campaign there in 1932) the 711-year-long statehood of Lübeck came to an end and almost all its territory was incorporated into Schleswig-Holstein.
Demian at 14 --
I think you should know I am not in the habit of making statements I cannot back up.
Munich was the base of the party, it took them time to move North. Significant presence in the Prussia state parliament, if memory serves. Goring became Minister-President of Prussia.
Here's a bit from Wikipedia, on Religion in Nazi Germany. Germany was 2/3 Protestant.
On February 1940, Barth accused German Lutherans specifically of separating Biblical teachings from its teachings of the State and thus legitimizing the Nazi state ideology. He was not alone with his view. A few years earlier on October 5, 1933, Pastor Wilhelm Rehm from Reutlingen declared publicly that "Hitler would not have been possible without Martin Luther", though many have also made this same statement about other influences in Hitler's rise to power..
It also notes that there was a pro-Nazi Protestant church formed under the Reich.
You might recall the famous statement of Rev. Niemoller, a Lutheran divine and late comer to antifascism. Roughly, "First they came for the Communists, but I was not and did nothing.... There was no one left when the came for me."
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 2 2015 12:05 utc | 15
"US training" in practice seems more an economic outcome than a military one. Much like sourcing the F35 - US training of indigenous troops presents limitless opportunities for kickbacks, theft, and other means of securing payment for local warlords. Trainers have to be fed, housed, and protected - all activities which generate income. Trainees have to be furnished equipment - which can be stolen and sold. Training itself consumes resources: ammunition, food, etc which also can be stolen and sold.
Enough baksheesh spread around this way, and you have built a nice local tier of warlord support.
Posted by: ǝn⇂ɔ | Apr 2 2015 13:19 utc | 16
The Germans of the 1930s and 40s, like the Americans of the 2000s and 10s, did not resist the imposition of totalitarian power.
Protestant, Catholic, atheist, other, alike.
The Germans of the 1930s and 40s were, as the Americans of the 2000s and 10s are, zombified cogs on the wheels of the imperial death machine.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 2 2015 13:20 utc | 17
The Catholic Church in Germany did resist Nazism during the Nazi Party's rise to power in Germany. However, shortly after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the Vatican ordered the Catholic Church in Germany to make the same sort of deal with the Nazis that the Vatican had struck with the Italian Fascists in the Vatican Treaty. In accordance with the deal that was struck, the Center (Catholic) Party's deputies in the Reichstag voted for Hitler's Enabling Law, the Catholic Party was dissolved, and a Concordat was struck between the Catholic Church and the now Nazi-ruled German Reich.
Thereafter, there continued to be some tension between the Catholic Church and the Nazis over the German government's encroachment on some privileges that the Church thought had been guaranteed to it under the Concordat, and over some Nazi policies, like the euthanasia program. But, despite the existence of some courageous Catholic dissenters, the official Catholic Church never denied the authority of the Nazi government or the legitimacy of its war
Posted by: lysias | Apr 2 2015 14:34 utc | 18
According to wikipedia, fascism was associated with "the ancient Roman fasces or fascio littorio, which consisted of a bundle of rods that were tied around an axe, an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of the civic magistrate carried by his lictors which could be used for corporal and capital punishment at his command. The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break. Similar symbols were developed by different fascist movements: for example the Falange symbol is five arrows joined together by a yoke."
Fascism distinguished itself from liberal parliamentarianism, which it considered weak and ineffective because based on individualism and deliberation rather than strength and action. I believe the Catholic Church considered liberalism to be heresy. Liberalism was among a list of -isms condemned by the reactionary Pope Pius IX, I believe.
Posted by: Harold | Apr 2 2015 18:05 utc | 20
See Syllabus of Errors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabus_of_Errors
Naziism was a type of Fascism based on theories racial supremacy and might makes right.
Posted by: Harold | Apr 2 2015 18:09 utc | 21
@10 fete.. thanks.. that is typically depressing and much along the lines of the topic of this thread as well..
Posted by: james | Apr 2 2015 18:34 utc | 22
@jfl #17:
Good analogy and good points.
@lysias #18:
Thank you for the very instructive history lesson.
@Harold #20:
Fascism distinguished itself from liberal parliamentarianism, which it considered weak and ineffective because based on individualism and deliberation rather than strength and action.
One should recall that what prompted John Locke to write the founding document of liberalism, his Two Treatises of Government was his fear that a Catholic king would oppress Protestants. Thus, liberalism was the direct result of Protestant fear of Catholic authoritarianism and hostility to non-Catholic Christianity. In the same way that the Nazis saw themselves as the Master Race, the Roman Catholic church sees itself – with the same sense of exceptionalism – as the universal church.
@11
'War on Yugoslavia'
There was no Yugoslavia by that point. But of course, you have a vested interest in making Serbia into an innocent victim. They stood up to America, ergo they must have been good guys!
Posted by: Kelwar | Apr 2 2015 22:07 utc | 24
jfl at 17 --
You should not project the easy acquiescence of all too many of our contemporaries onto the Weimar Republic. Nor should you carelessly lump assorted social classes and groups into "the Germans." Zombie cogs sounds good, but it dangerously oversimplifies the present and the past.
If you look at who voted for the NSDAP, as Thomas Childers does in The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1933 (University of North Carolina Press, 1983), one can tell who opposed them.
The Party's support lay in the lumpen-proletariat, and the petty bourgeoisie (shopkeepers, professionals, academics, civil servants, white collar employees). The industrial working class, Socialist and Communist, of course were not their base. Speaking of the 1930's he writes "Just as the industrial working class remained by and large immune to the National Socialist 'contagion,' areas of Catholic concentration continued to be relatively impervious to Nazi electoral advances." (p. 258) Catholics identified the volkisch movement around the Nazis with the Kulturkampf of Bismarck.
As Niemoller indirectly acknowledges, that the Social Democrats, Communists, and trade unionists went to the camps first is not accidental. Their arrest forestalled any serious resistance. The Social Democrats, I would note, maintained an underground movement, connected to leaders in exile; something I read in grad school on public opinion under the Nazis cited it extensively. Hopefully I'll recall it.
Childers stresses throughout that the main electoral appeal of the Nazis was to anti-Bolshevism. Anti-semitism was an important appeal to a segment of the their electorate; the middle-class was put off by it.
I would describe the subsequent Reich as a mixture of true believers, careerists, elite and plebian opportunists, the accepting, the necessary, and the cowed.
We should be clear -- the Nazis obtained and retained power domestically through force with aid of more mainstream conservatives. Our present regime rests on a modern variation of "bread and circuses", the sort of process described in Huxley's Brave New World Revisited. Neil Postman's notion of "amusing ourselves to death" seems to sum that up. Regrettably, I have not read him, so don't know what he made of Huxley's short series of essays.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 2 2015 23:30 utc | 25
It’s Official – All Kiev's Investigations of Maidan Crimes Deadlocked
"Council of Europe report finds that official Ukrainian investigations into crimes committed during the Maidan protests are a total shambles and are going nowhere."
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 3 2015 3:05 utc | 26
04/02/2015 21:12
Artillery batteries of large caliber of Ukrainian army are still retained in north-west of settlement Peski.
On April 1, groups of sappers of Donetsk Republic army advanced in small city Avdeevka, which, and some adjacent territories, is considered “no man’s land” and planted with land mines since last summer.
The sappers’ work was soon interrupted by artillery fire from Ukrainian side.
They fired 122 mm and 155 mm howitzers. This fact amounts to a blatant violation of the Minsk agreements to pull weapons of 100 mm caliber and higher 50 kilometers away of contact line. It is only about 15-20 kilometers between the Ukrainian positions behind Peski, where heavy artillery is installed, and districts Kiyevsky and Kuybishevskiy of Donetsk.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 3 2015 3:31 utc | 27
As billmon predicted the Ukraine has called Russia's number -- for now: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-ukraine-crisis-gas-idUSKBN0MT0B420150402
Posted by: Harold | Apr 3 2015 6:56 utc | 28
b. just saw this story linked to on the front page of Russia Insider.
Will US-Trained Fascists Storm Kiev?
Posted by: Fran | Apr 3 2015 13:50 utc | 29
so, are the Nazis from ukraine worse than the Nazis from Russia?
kinda curious give the big gathering in st petersburg recently...were those good Nazis?
Posted by: anotherjeff | Apr 3 2015 14:23 utc | 30
Obama fully intends to get a war or at least threat of war started in the Ukraine between Russia and NATO in order to boost the military-industrial complex and the US military budget.
The alleged intent of the Ukraine crisis was to make Ukraine into a NATO base on Russia's borders. But Russia will never stand for that. And it's not certain that everyone in the Beltway was ignorant of that. These people can read the articles that pointed out that Russia would not stand for that.
But Russia didn't take the bait and invade Ukraine. Instead they merely supported the anti-Kiev forces in the east.
So Obama has to up the ante. The only way to do that is to support the far-right neo-Nazi forces in the Ukraine and get them to take over the government. This is because Russia will never accept a Nazi-led Ukraine, either.
The goal is to force Russia to deal militarily directly with Ukraine, thus justifying a NATO threat response, which will boost the Cold war and boost the US and EU military-industrial complex.
Never forget that Obama is owned and operated by his masters in Chicago who are both Israel-Firsters and stock holders in the military-industrial complex.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 3 2015 17:44 utc | 31
Funny that this isn't showing up on Western news channels:
offguardian: “We’re not cattle”: Kiev protesters throw manure at US embassy (with video)
Note that unlike the EuroMaidan, this protest is peaceful.
Republicans see Obama as a greater threat to the US than Putin. For once, they are right.
@31,32
Looks like the Ukrainians are finally beginning to understand just how badly they have been played. Maybe they will no longer stand for a Nazi-led Ukraine, either?
I mean ... how have they benefited at all from NAZI rule?
Posted by: jfl | Apr 3 2015 22:11 utc | 34
American citizen linked to al-Qaeda is captured, flown secretly to U.S.
I expected they'd arrested Barack Obama for funding al Qaeda, or John McCain for his infamous tete a tete with terrorist leaders in the Middle East ... but no, its some poor soul 'believed to have trained with al-Qaeda in Pakistan', another 'suspected terrorist' - this one to be droned by the judiciary, apparently.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 3 2015 23:06 utc | 35
aj at 30 --
It's quite simple, really. Armed fascists in power (Kiev) are much worse than unarmed fascists without (Moscow).
RSH at 31 --
Short, sweet, to the point. Except I think the ownership group is really Wall St., not Chicago, which would be the local branch.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 4 2015 2:47 utc | 36
04/03/2015
Comment: Almost nothing reported from Donbass frontiers today. Perspectives of confronting military remain vague. Hiatus resulted from the Minsk agreements is meantime solidifying. Bad peace is by far superior to good war.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 4 2015 3:57 utc | 37
04/04/2015 13:16
Aleksandr Lentsov, a colonel general of Russian Federation, accompanying OSCE representatives in settlement Spartak, called the Ukrainian representative, general Aleksandr Ramaznin, who was visiting settlement Avdeevka.
In ensuing conversation, the Ukrainian side accused combatants of Donetsk Republic of violating ceasefire out of Spartak. In turn, Lentsov explained to the Ukrainian side that the truce was not broken in Spartak.
According to Lentsov, “the lack of trust is due to battalions of irregulars on the Ukrainian side”. “The fire may stop if Kiyev pulls battalions that are not subordinate to the Ukrainian military”.
“Yesterday, the combatants’ positions under Shirikino were fired for several hours following arrival of irregulars”, Lentsov told to journalists.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 5 2015 3:00 utc | 38
Easter peace - common sense at last:
Statement by the "Weimar triangle" - France, Germany, Poland
A tailor-made approach to EU’s neighbors should take into account their needs, commitment to reforms, but also geopolitical environment and the EU’s interests. France, Germany and Poland recognize the need to use the ENP instruments more widely to strengthen the stability and security of the EU’s neighborhood. To this effect, in line with the comprehensive approach, CFSP/CSDP tools should be used in the framework of the ENP. The ENP partners should never be forced to choose between the EU and other neighbors. The Ministers stressed the necessity to make EU support mechanisms more flexible and adjustable to a changing situation on the ground.
ENP - European Neighbourhood Policy
Posted by: somebody | Apr 5 2015 9:45 utc | 39
@25
I'm sure it's interesting to analyse the NAZI support, but you dangerously overcomplicate the situation ... the bottom line is that the German people allowed themselves to become the sea in which the NAZI barracuda swam, and that we the American people are today the water the neo-con sharks are cutting with their dorsal fins.
Cogs in the wheel are just that - not the axles, the engines, the driveshafts. They protest that they do not support the NAZIs! But they insufficiently oppose them. What must we do? What it takes.
I think Hannah Arendt was right. The effective villains are not the rabid supporters, they are too few. The effective villains are those who go along to get along, for they are too many.
@39
France, Germany and Poland do not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and continue to condemn this act of violation of international law, which is also a direct challenge to international security. All three countries also fully support the EU’s active non-recognition policy in this regard. These actions by the Russian Federation undermine the stability and trust in our region.France, Germany and Poland are also concerned about Russia’s recent withdrawal from Joint Consultative Group, which completes Russia’s earlier suspension of its implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). It is yet another worrisome signal sent by Moscow, which does not contribute to rebuilding trust and confidence on our continent, but further weakens security architecture in Europe.
Crimea is history, a done deal. Why are they bringing this up?
The US/EU NAZIfication of Ukraine and serial warcrimes committed against Donbass, NATO's encirclement of Russia and the constant stream of anti-Russian propaganda coming from these three do 'contribute to rebuilding trust and confidence on our continent?'
What are these people talking about? Were they copying their statement from something dispatched from Washington? Europe is the doormat of the USA. They must like being fucked by Veronica Nuland.
to D at 14, 23 & jfl at 12
I now have a bit of time for my own syllabus of errors on ecclesiastical history. Seems a suitable project for an atheist on Easter Sun. (with Mrs. M. at Mass at St. Pat's).
Let me begin by noting -- I'm not so much pro-Catholic as anti-anti-popery. It's just such a WASPy, white bread, Establilshmentarian sort of bias, isn't it?
To lysias and Harold -- thanks for the hand with Weimar, nice work at 18-20.
The church as an institution has generally not reacted to or behaved as well as it should in the post-Reformation era. Let's not pile on others failings as well.
Though the Bishop of Rome bears the title of the chief priest of the old Roman state paganism pontifex maximus, the Catholic Church is much more a medieval and early modern institution than a ancient holdover.
As the Roman Empire began to disappear in the West, the barbarian chieftans began to obtain formal political power. For a number of reasons, they had the needed skills and manpower to deal with other barbarian horsemen. They obtained grants of land for their service, as well military ranks that later evolved in the feudal ranks of duke and count.
The Byzantine continuers of the Senate and People of Rome maintained a base at Ravenna, and granted continued to grant these titles for some time after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, last emperor in the West, in the late 400'.
Often, they took over the countryside and left the "Romans" in the town under Roman law, administered by the last remaining Roman institution -- the Church. It was not uncommon for the last remaining Roman notables to become bishops, even if they were not actually Christian, as their Stoic duty to their charges. Bishops ruled as secular princes in places like Rome, Cologne, Liege, and Milan.
It was not uncommon for cathedral chapters and urban populations to have a formal say in the election of bishops in the early middle ages. Kings and other nobles often controlled sees through rights of nomination, often granted in recognition of royal grants or asserted as a state prerogative.
Practice varied widely from area to area, with pagan deities and practices repurposed as Christian saints and traditions. And during the "Babylonian captivity," it was political prize pawn.
The impulses of the Reformation and the trend towards centralized, royal power largely created the present organization. Like the absolute monarchs of the day, the papacy sought to enhance its power. It began to insist on greater conformity, promoting the cult of the Virgin over local favorites. Election of the pontiff was removed the the nobles and people of Rome and given over solely to clerics.
It was this link with absolutism -- not inherent in Christianity, but a product of a definite conjuncture of historical forces and conditions -- that Locke was reacting against.
Absolutism was not solely a Catholic phenomena. Frederick the Great and Peter I and Catherine II were in this mold. But to the constutional monarchists of England and the leaders of the Dutch Republic, absolutism and Baroque meant Catholic, and they wanted nothing to do with either. See Wren's St. Paul.
France disliked Baroque, but that's because they saw it as Spanish. See Versailles -- ornate neo-classical, not hyperactive Baroque.
Were I to be in the business of creating a syncretic "true church," I'd go with Catholic ritual and Protestant doctrine and governance. Oh, wait, that's Luther and the Episcopalians, my bad.
I actually tried to steer Mrs. M. to the Anglicans when she began to want to formalize her faith, but the locals were all way too conservative. But she found a local parish with a radical priest, so back to the Old Time Religion.
I do have a beef with Luther, actually, but that's over his pamphlet against the peasant's revolt of 1525. His exegesis on justification by faith, however, seems quite sound. We see what damage a celibate clergy can do, sadly.
Having preached my own "anti-sermon," an anti-hymn seems appropriate. Here's Kristofferson and the Foo Fighters, Sunday Morning Coming Down.
"Now go and sin no more." John 8:11. Drink up, barflies!
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 5 2015 15:26 utc | 42
RT: Czech president says his ‘doors are closed’ to US envoy over Moscow WWII visit comments
Leader of the Czech Republc, Miloš Zeman, says he won’t let any ambassador of another nation intrude with advice over his foreign visits. This comes as the US Ambassador criticized Zeman’s plans to go to Moscow’s celebration of the WWII parade.It's interesting that the Czech president is defying Washington on this but Hungarian P.M. Viktor Orbán isn't. That is probably because Washington has Orbán in its sights for regime change, so that he doesn't want to provoke the beast more than he has to, whereas the Czech president's position is apparently mostly ceremonial.“I’m afraid, after this statement the doors of the Prague Castle are closed for Ambassador Schapiro,” Zeman told Parlamentni Listy webportal on Saturday. Prague Castle is the president’s official residence and office. …
“I cannot imagine a Czech ambassador in Washington giving advice to the US president on where he should travel,” Zeman said. “I will not let any ambassador interfere with the program of my foreign trips.”
In the interview, the president also voiced his concern over the current Western attempts to isolate Russia.
On a side note, I found this RT article by doing a regular Google search. When I did a Google news search using the same string, the RT article didn't come up. That suggests that Google News filters out RT.
Ukrainians continue their embrace of European values:
A Ukrainian political analyst says Ukrainian snipers should target Russian journalists - https://t.co/km82rJ49oK #Ukrainewar #Novorossiya
— Graham W Phillips (@GrahamWP_UK) April 5, 2015
This mural from inside a Uniate church in Lvov illustrates what western Ukrainian religiosity is like:
Храм в Львове. Я даже комментировать это не буду. Диагноз налицо. https://t.co/9mYJIC7iOA pic.twitter.com/6DlwwZyhKi
— Сводки Новороссии (@myrevolutionrus) April 5, 2015
(Instead of censoring Russian news sites, TypePad should fix its software so that embedded tweets are displayed properly.)
D at 45 --
I can no more condone Uniate fascists than I can Opus Dei or the Knights of Malta. Or nativist anti-popery.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 5 2015 23:30 utc | 46
@rm #46:
Or nativist anti-popery.
So I guess you despise Anglophone liberalism, since John Locke was an anti-papist. It's funny how you should side with Roman Catholicism over liberalism, even though you are an atheist.
And I fail to see how I am a "nativist", something which you apparently accuse me of being.
D @ 47 -- Nativism was an American political movement of the middle 1800's, epitomized by the Know-Nothing Party. It was anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic.
As a partisan of the Enlightenment, I'm all for Lockean political theory.
I would note that the settlement of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 included toleration for Catholics and Dissenting Protestants; Locke famously wrote "A Letter Concerning Toleration."
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 6 2015 1:45 utc | 48
04/05/2015 23:33
This evening, the Ukrainian military led massive artillery assault of Donetsk airport and district Oktyabr`skiy. “The Ukrainian forces fired 155 mm cannons”, a representative of Defense Ministry told journalists.
04/05/2015 16:24
From Gorlovka, Evgeniy reported an attack by Ukrainian troops on 9:00 a.m. in attempt to breach combatants’ defense. Mortars, APCs, tanks and heavy machine guns were involved in the attack.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 6 2015 3:33 utc | 49
@rm #48:
I am neither anti-immigrant nor anti-Catholic. (My parents were immigrants.) What I am against is fascism and the RC church, which have a lot in common. The RC church has endlessly demonstrated that it cannot accommodate itself to liberalism or modernity. Pope John Paul II shut down liberation theology and supported fascist South American regimes which murdered with death squads people who fought for social justice. The current pope, Francis, met with the current P.M. of the Ukraine, the racist fascist Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which signifies that the RC church is firmly holding to its policy that people of the Eastern Orthodox faith should be exterminated. If Francis did not believe that Eastern Orthodox should be exterminated, he would have denounced the Nazi Kiev regime by now for its crimes against humanity.
One can see the relation between the RC church and liberalism in the American context. The RC church sophistically uses the concept of "religious freedom" as an entry point for engaging in one of its favorite activities, oppressing women, with its argument that religious freedom gives RC institutions the right not to be subject to civil law which gives reproductive rights to women. This brazenly aggressive conduct on the part of the RC church shows that it is constitutionally incapable of understanding or respecting the Protestant concept of the separation of the church and state. Unbridled domination of society is in the RC genetic code. Catholic clergy who did not have this all-consuming will to power became Lutherans.
@jfl:
I believe that you were the one who brought White Tiger up here. I watched it; it is a very powerful film. The tank fighting scenes are very well done, and the speech at the end about the white tiger (i.e., fascism) coming back turned out to be very prophetic.
Somebody here also mentioned Song of Russia. (At least I think someone did, because I don't know where else I could have learned about this film.) I just watched that. It is a must-see in the current situation of the US now being on the side of Nazis, whom it uses to wage its war on its former Russian ally. Song of Russia has been shown on Turner Classic Movies, but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), it is neither available for purchase nor publicly available on the Internet, as far as I can tell.
@50
Watch out for the Jesuits at Georgetown as well. From Edmund Aloysius Walsh, S.J., who suggested to Joe McCarthy that he might make a political killing with a red scare to Georgetown's hiring of Douglas Feith as an adjunct professor after he left the W administration they are true blue reactionaries and authoritarians in the belly of the beast in Washington DC.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 6 2015 10:15 utc | 51
Of course their are Georgetown Jesuits ... and then there are others. Not from North America.
- Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J.
- Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J.
- Segundo Montes, S.J.
- Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J.
- Joaquín López y López, S.J.
- Amando López, S.J.
- Elba Ramos
- Celina Ramos (16 years old, daughter of Elba Ramos)
Noam Chomsky has a picture of them in his office, he says, and he uses it as a litmus test.
Everyone from Central and South America know exactly who they are.
No one from North America has a clue.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 6 2015 10:22 utc | 52
The Song of Russia (1944) is available, although I haven't found English subtitles.
There are also (at least) two Hollywood films made when Russia - the USSR - and the US were allies during the second WW.
I don't know how good they are.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 6 2015 11:13 utc | 54
jfl at 54 -- I've seen North Star, with Walter Huston. Excellent film. It's set on an occupied kolkhoz that is resiting occupation.
Demian at 50 -- Yes, those popists with their allegiance to that foreign potentate, they just can't be trusted to be good Americans, can they? That's nativism.
We'll all just overlook Carroll's and Maryland's contributions to the Revolution, shall we? Our lone Catholic president did not subject us to Rome. One might have thought that would have put paid to this sort of nativist anti-popery.
If you want some real theocracy, dabble in Protestant Dominionism.
We Irish were once derided as "white n*****s," so it pains me to see many fellow Celts amongst the most racist today. It is not an uncommon mode of integration. Yesterday's reviled newcomer is tomorrow's howling nativist, denouncing today's immigrant.
It's the Protestants that are the violent militants regarding abortion. The Catholic Church to its credit is opposed not only to abortion, but to the death penalty as well. Catholic hospitals have every right to decide which procedures they will offer. I only worry where consolidations leave the local Catholic hospital the only option.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 6 2015 12:04 utc | 55
@55
' It's set on an occupied kolkhoz that is resisting [NAZI] occupation. '
In the Ukraine, according to imdb.com. How times have changed, eh? It's coming along pretty well. I imagine I'll be able to watch it tomorrow.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 6 2015 13:04 utc | 56
Demian @50 wrote:
"Somebody here also mentioned Song of Russia."
I mentioned it, having heard of it through Ayn Rand's "expert" testimony before Congress complaining that it showed Russians smiling. I haven't a lot of film-watching time budget at present, but smiling Russians is definitely on my list.
Wonder what she would've made of the Beatles' "Back in the USSR"?
Posted by: Vintage Red | Apr 6 2015 15:41 utc | 57
@rm #55:
Yes, those popists with their allegiance to that foreign potentate, they just can't be trusted to be good Americans, can they? That's nativism.
Saying that pointing out that the RC church uses "religious freedom" as a license to oppress women is nativism is like saying that criticism of Israel is antisemitism. You have descended into self-parody.
Demian @ 58 --
That you criticize the Church for its use of religious freedom marks you as tenditious or uninformed, not nativist. I'm thinking the former.
All denominations can use their freedom of conscience to hold whatever reactionary opinions they wish, and to argue for them in the public square. The churches themselves, as well as their universities, schools and charities, are free to hire and fire as they will, without regard EOE laws. Catholics are far from the only or worst faith in oppressing women.
Any honest examination of anti-abortion laws would note that the worst of them are proposed by fundamentalist Protestants in the Bible Belt and Midwest.
You will also note that many of the most prominent Catholic politicians (e.g., Biden, Cuomo, etc.) publically dissent fromt the Church's teachings, declining to impose their private theology on the public. The widespread disregard by the faithful on strictures on birth control, etc., is well known.
I can't see how the willingness of Francis to meet the Prime Minister of a country where he has a large congregation makes him complicit in some planned but as yet unexecuted genocide of the Orthodox. From his Easter message, my emphasis: "May the Lord’s resurrection bring light to beloved Ukraine, especially to those who have endured the violence of the conflict of recent months. May the country rediscover peace and hope thanks to the commitment of all interested parties."
Personally, I see the Orthodox of the Donbas has having endured the worst of the violence.
I have little regard for either JPII or Benedict, both were social and theological reactionaries. Francis strikes me as a genuinely pious and humble man, in the best traditions of his teacher, the Prince of Peace. Unlike the Protestant Revs. Robertson or Graham, or other divines sadly too numerous to mention.
Wikipedia on liberation theology notes that Francis is sympathetic to the end, though surprisingly resistant to its Marxist means, as he moves to towards reconciliation. I'll take the "preferential option for the poor" over the "Gospel of Wealth" of the megachurches any day.
It's here where you go nativist; again, emphasis added.
The RC church sophistically uses the concept of 'religious freedom' [in asserting its]... right not to be subject to civil law which gives reproductive rights to women [this is actually a bit of sophistry, since those rights still exist, the Church will not aid one in exercising it, and as noted above, this is a right enjoyed by all denominations -- rm]. This brazenly aggressive conduct on the part of the RC church shows that it is constitutionally incapable of understanding or respecting the Protestant concept of the separation of the church and state. [Yow! - I understood the Enlightenment to be Deist in its theology; I know you find this annoying, but I really must insist; its's "endowed by their Creator... Nature and Nature's God..." in the Lockean Declaration, no?] Unbridled domination of society is in the RC genetic code.
I was unaware that we Catholics were a race also, like the Hebrews, and apparently a congenitally uppity one (though that could just be us drunk and unruly Irish). Even ex-Catholics like Your Humble Poster. It's in the genes, don't you know? I suppose that's where I get my own gifts for sophistry.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 6 2015 23:47 utc | 59
Ukrainian fascism reaches deep into the Anglosphere:
Toronto Globe and Mail:
Ukrainian-born soloist dropped from TSO for her political views
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is getting a taste of the rough side of social media, as word quickly spreads of its decision to bar a piano soloist for her political views. The TSO decided not to put Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa on stage this week, citing “ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets.”The "deeply offensive language" involves expressing opposition to the Ukrainian civil war.That comment, from a terse statement by TSO president Jeff Melanson, apparently refers to some responses to Lisitsa’s comments on Twitter about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Back on topic....
New Cold War has two interesting reports from Banderastan. Poroshenko has placed Martial law on the agenda. Measure would include internment of Russian nationals. Meanwhile, of more interest and importance might be an under-reported demo against austerity and repression at the US Embassy in Kiev, attended by a about two thousand.
People were mooing and bleating in protest against the transformation of the Ukrainians into beasts by means of prices and rates increase, lowering salaries and standards of living, and banning freedom of speech and opinion. Mooing is the only thing people can do not to be arrested by the current government.
As usual, Fort Russ has gleaned some choice info from the Russian web. That Wash. is dumping the radicals and betting on the traitors is not news, but it is good to see it described so handily.
So here's what money can buy. War with Russia Now Much Likelier: Ukraine’s Leading Nazi Gets American Weapons & Support. Eric Zuess translates from Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten and provides a commentary. Yarosh accepted a senior post within the Ministry of Defense and his militia now has official status.
For Russia, this is not good news. The right sector has so far refused to accept the Minsk agreements. The militias are considered particularly ideological and determined to continue the fight against Russia by any and all means. Whether the integration of Yarosh's troops into the official Army will produce a significant rightward shift in the entire army is as yet unclear.
While he does interesting work, I think Zuess gets a little worked up and hyperbolic.
This is a declaration of war against Russia, not only against Donbass.... Putin will, at some point, need to invade Kiev, unless this move that was announced on Sunday is quickly reversed. The question then is whether Russia will launch a first-strike nuclear attack against the United States, or instead just wait for the U.S. to strike first (and then attack back, if they still would be able to).
It's not good, but a far sight from nuclear doom. How much equipment will they really get, at what cost, both on and off the books, and will they be any better at using it than they have to date?
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 7 2015 1:17 utc | 61
Red Star over Donbass has a nice article by Victor Shapinov, of the Ukrainian leftist group Borotba (Struggle), arguing that 'No one is obliged to do impossible things' to try to implement Minsk II.
In order to end the civil war – "hot" in Donetsk and Lugansk, "cold" in Odessa and Kharkov -- we need a national dialogue. Everyone understands that the leadership of the DNR and LC is now in negotiations with Kiev not only on behalf of the residents of pieces of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions called "special territories", but also to some extent for the good half of the Ukrainian population, which disagrees with what has happened in the country since the coup d' etat in February 2014.And the Kiev junta disrupts the agreements precisely because it is afraid of this half of the population that has not accepted the Maidan and its results. After all, if you give "voice" to representatives of the victorious uprisings in the Donbass, then their "voice" would require the participation of those involved in the suppressed uprisings in Odessa and Kharkov. And something tells me that the "silent majority,” suffering from rising prices and tariffs, would not be on the side of the Kiev authorities in this dialogue....
In general, you always want to be an optimist when it comes to war and peace, but it seems that war is inherent in the social nature of Ukrainian regime, and lasting peace will be established only when a new leadership take power in Kiev.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will, Gramsci used to say.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 7 2015 1:58 utc | 62
@62 Very lucid. I'm sure a lot of Ukrainians would like to turn the clock back to pre-Maidan days. It explains why Poroshenko is opposed to federalism.
Posted by: dh | Apr 7 2015 2:05 utc | 63
04/06/2015 22:30
Despite formally adhering the ceasefire agreement, the Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk suburbs and a part of Donetsk. The cannon and mortar fire came from direction of Peski and Avdeevka.
At least 20 salvos of 152 mm howitzers sounded.
The Ukrainian army expands its targets subconsciously: the shells once again reach areas that were under bombardment before February 15, 2015
04/06/2015 22:33
“That Washington is very reluctant to see either success of the Minsk agreements or overcoming the current crisis in Russia – Europe relations is obvious to me; even though John Kerry is consistently telling me opposite”, said Sergey Lavrov, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in interview to the information agency “Russia Today”.
“The practical operators are several functionaries of significantly lower level, plus variety of non-government organizations, such as various funds; these are who runs the current Ukrainian show”, he added.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 7 2015 3:11 utc | 64
@64
On Lavrov ... a breath of fresh air. He knows exactly what's going on in the USA.
Obama reports to Brennan and Kerry reports to Nuland. And Soros.
Of the people by the TNCs for the TNCs.
I neglected to post this, another analysis from Borotba in the Ukraine, via Red Star Over Donbass. Ivan Belensky tries to map out The road to peace in Ukraine. He describes a tripartite war party. One part is the fascists and military careerists, entreprenuers with war contracts, and elements of the intelligentsia.
So: this whole "pro-military coalition" simply will not allow the government and the president to begin a peaceful settlement, even if they suddenly wanted peace. And government officials are well aware that as soon as they begin to take some real steps towards reconciliation, this coalition will immediately overthrow them and hang them from the lampposts in Mariinsky Park as "traitors."I believe, therefore, that there will be no peace. And there will be no compliance with the Minsk accords. And the war will continue....
If the governments of the People’s Republics intend to lead their troops to victory -- and they have no other choice! -- they have only one way forward: to proclaim themselves the new Ukraine! Propose a new project, free from the Nazis and Ukrainian oligarchs, a Federal Republic based on the equality of citizens under the law, and -- in keeping with our Donbass traditions -- mutual respect and equality of people who engage in honest labor. This is the only strategy that can save insurgent Donbass, historic Novorossiya, and all of Ukraine. Only this can reverse the ascension of Ukrainian oligarchs, and only this can attract the working masses of other Ukrainian regions to the side of the great Donbass uprising.
They may not get Galicia to go along, but I think this is only road forward. Properly implemented, such an approach could energize the masses (and social revolution) as well as defeat the junta and its local underwriters.
This seems consistent with the analysis of Pyotr Akopov in the Russian business paper "Vzglyad," who argues that Russia will not take back the Donbass because it is worried about all of Ukraine. He reports Poroshenko offered the Federation the Donbas, but Putin turned it down. "For Poroshenko, getting rid of Novorossia is not only the only chance to retain power, it is also the only chance to continue Ukraine’s eurointegration, even if it means a country smaller in size."
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 7 2015 22:48 utc | 66
According to A HREF="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/07/killings-in-the-name-of-ukrainian-land-of-donbas/">Counterpunch, it seems like the Kiev Patriarchate is more of problem in the Ukraine than the Uniates, as it looks at the bio of Philaret. Halyna Molrushyna, the author, has had a number of interesting articles appear there.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 7 2015 23:27 utc | 67
oh, wasn't that ugly? Clean-up at aisle 67....
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 7 2015 23:28 utc | 68
@66 Akopov lays it out. Of course whatever happens with Donbass (and Crimea) it needs to satisfy a lot of different parties. Not just Putin and Poroshenko. The IMF and NATO, which means the US, will want some input. The 'rebels' will want total autonomy at the very minimum. Probably the Maidanites will be happy with jobs in Europe but hardcore nationalists will still be baying for Russian blood.
Posted by: dh | Apr 8 2015 0:57 utc | 69
04/08/2015 05:26
A source in headquarters of the 1st corps of Donetsk Republic army confirmed that the Ukrainian side tried to take positions of Donetsk Republic army in proximity of Peski using tanks and APCs.
The positions were bombarded by artillery prior to that.
In the morning, fringes of Gorlovka were struck by artillery and mortar fire.
Overall, today’s assaults cost combatants two wounded.
Combatant “Sich” (“Small owl”) described situation as follows.
“Yesterday and today, we were shelled up to hundred times from armored hardware and mortars. Counting small arms assault is pointless. They fire, we respond – every day, 24 hours.
The ceasefire regimen is not observed by Ukrainians; neither by us from now on.
Their howitzers and self-propelled artillery work more frequently. Fire single shots or two in a row.
About two hundred artillery units are installed on their positions. Our positions are ready, but artillery remains on the back...”
Posted by: Fete | Apr 8 2015 3:24 utc | 70
Strange. The US corporate media has done some investigative reporting.
Newsweek: Mystery of Ukraine's Richest Man and a Series of Unlikely Suicides
In reply to a legal request by Newsweek for information on investigations into the deaths of seven other former officials, all tied to Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, the General Prosecutor’s Office responded that all the information about all the deaths was a state secret – a staggering claim to make about a series of apparently unrelated civilian deaths they told the press were suicides.After an intervention by the Presidential Administration, the General Prosecutor’s Office disclosed that four of the seven deaths are being investigated as murders, with another investigation as yet unclassified. The two remaining cases had been closed with no evidence of a crime. No other information was provided.
At the heart of this murder mystery is one wealthy businessman in particular – 48-year-old billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $7bn. …
Watching the country’s top prosecutors leaving the General Prosecutor’s Office in sharp suits and stepping into gleaming Porsches, BMWs and Land Rovers, it’s clear that the average state prosecutor’s wage, equivalent to €400 per month, isn’t their only source of income. Within the same building, officials are representing an array of different interests.
@71 demian.. speaking of investigative reporting - john helmer has this on kolomoisky from yesterday..
Posted by: james | Apr 9 2015 1:54 utc | 72
Well, here's a fine display of the Ukraine's "European values." From Red Star over Donbass, Fascists threaten to attack May Day march in Kiev>.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 9 2015 2:57 utc | 73
04/08/2015
During past day, practically all front felt increased activity of the Ukrainian side. Their shelling was persistent.
The strikes hit near city Gorlovka, settlement Spartak and, once again, Donetsk airport. Neither was calm on the southern part of the front.
In combat near Peski, heavy machine guns, mortars, armored hardware participated.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 9 2015 3:34 utc | 74
The venerable Rada of Solons sitting on the banks of the Dnieper has offered us proof of its manifest wisdom. The account of the debate is behind the paywall, but staff writer Alyona Zhuk does provide a summary of the results for the Kyiv Post. Ukraine's Parliament removes skeletons from dark closets of nation's history, in her opinion. Myself, I'm thinking they may be looking for a little more closet space.
Ukraine's Parliament has passed legislation that recognizes the Communist and Nazi totalitarian regime as criminal and those that pursued a state terror policy.The bill also bans propaganda and symbols of the regimes, along with any activities of Nazi and fascist groups in Ukraine.
After the law comes into effect, all monuments for Communist figures must be demolished. Cities and streets, named after the communist ideologists are supposed to be renamed.
Parliament passed the bill that grants special status to everyone who took part in fighting for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century, including all insurgency and partisan groups and organizations such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
So the junta is banning itself? I very sincerly doubt if any of the volunteer battalions and the Pravyi Sektor/Svoboda types will be called out as fascist. But you can be sure the Reds will repressed.
Doesn't this pretty much sum up the regime in Kiev? Banning those who defeated the fascists, while making collaborators the equals of the Red Army victors. Has any NATO country has banned the Communist Party? Recently, that is. I believe that a number of E. Euro. states had lustration, which put incumbent apparatchiks out of power, but the parties themselves remained legal.
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 10 2015 3:23 utc | 75
04/10/2015 01:54
The ex-Minister of Donetsk Republic Defense, Igor` Strelkov, shared operative information and his opinion that situation in Donbass escalates once again.
“Overall, it is fair to say that the truce has ended. Clashes, some employing artillery as well, are taking place along entire front line.
The opponent's shock troops have advanced to frontiers. There is likelihood that the attack will start before Easter (April 12)”
Posted by: Fete | Apr 10 2015 3:35 utc | 76
Fort Russ reports that the Odessa People's Republic declares its independence and secession from Ukraine, while South Front's Ukraine Crisis News reports on Odessans rising up in support of the Bessarabian People's Rada (approximately 45 sec into the news clip), several of whose leadership have apparently been taken in by the SBU. I am not sure whether the OPR is one and the same with the Bessarabian People's Rada, or they are acting in coordination, but either way these risings make it clear why the Kiev junta is launching a new domestic campaign against "domestic separatists" on the very eve of launching a new large-scale attack on the DPR and LPR.
Kharkov and Nikolaev next up?
Posted by: Vintage Red | Apr 10 2015 4:10 utc | 78
@78
I saw the OPRs declaration ... signed by (self-appointed?) officers of the independent republic. I took them to be ex-pats. Otherwise they will certainly be dead soon,don't you think? Odessa ain't Donbass, in terms of popular support for a PR, is it?
Thanks for the news on the BPR. It's all good news, I just fear the consequences for the people uprising ... but they probably have a much better appraisal of their chances. I hope.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2015 5:46 utc | 79
@jfl, 79:
I am obviously not on the ground, so I can't speak to the level of popular support for the uprising and the OPR. I didn't catch anything to indicate they were making this declaration in exile, and that would be significant enough (I think) to include in a story on this if it were so--so I took them to be people of the region. It is worth keeping in mind that Fort Russ said they were reporting this news but are seeking confirmation as to what is actually happening in Odessa (the South Front story seems to be related, but from a different source--a partial confirmation?).
As to their prospects for victory/survival, I share the same concern. I have kept close eye over the Winter on reports of the resistance growing in junta-controlled Ukraine, and several sources reported a gathering of forces toward such uprisings "when ready." I see three possibilities:
1) They are not "ready" but perhaps fear that the junta's new anti-"domestic separatist" campaign will net them soon, so they instead opt for an uprising now, rather than be taken in to a certain death.
2) They are confident that they are ready, and this is a planned uprising.
3) This is spontaneous and unplanned.
Odessa ain't Donbass, as you say, but that doesn't mean that after a year of fascism enough popular support can have organized to support the uprising. One advantage Donbass had was a very large majority of Russians in the DPR/LPR, and being right on the border with Russia proper. The news of the BPR stresses that many different nationalities are coming together to resist Ukrainian nationalism, an internationalist alliance that very understandably might take longer to forge.
I remember reading that Marx and Engels warned the people of Paris not to rise up in 1871, that an uprising would be doomed to defeat. Once the Paris Commune was declared, however, both worked to build solidarity with it, no questions asked. Hopefully this is not a premature rising and the OPR and BPR have enough power to weather the junta's counterattack. Whether this leads to some form of dual power, a "guerrilla republic" or some new form of struggle only time will tell, but in any event it deserves our solidarity.
Posted by: Vintage Red | Apr 10 2015 6:42 utc | 80
@76
Kiev junta launches a large scale attack on Novorossia right in time for Russian Orthodox Easter
Donetsk under fireTanks approaching Donetsk
Shirokino
Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2015 7:33 utc | 81
@80
Maybe there is a connection to the renewed attack on Donbass. Donbass has had the same time to prepare as have the NAZIs. Perhaps there's something planned between DPR, LPR and OPR, BPR and points in between.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2015 7:38 utc | 82
The Saker posted an interesting article today from drakulablog documenting western plans to undermine Russia via Ukraine and discrediting the Putin administration. Seems legit and the blog contains other posts of interest re the ME.
Posted by: Nana2007 | Apr 10 2015 18:38 utc | 83
Army Recruit Charged with Helping ISIS Watched by FBI, Given Clearance by Army
Booker’s plans to join the Army were derailed the next month by his deteriorating mental health.“BOOKER voluntarily checked himself into a mental health facility for evaluation on 26 March 2014; Kansas City Division is in contact with the facility and will be apprised if BOOKER is deemed healthy enough to be released. BOOKER has not been charged with a crime at present. BOOKER does not have access to a vehicle or other form of transportation at this time, nor is there evidence he possess firearms,” the report, issued March 30, 2014, stated.
What changed in the following year was not necessarily Booker’s mental state, but the introduction into his life of two FBI informants.
And the story of this Army recruit played by the FBI is told by the Intercept's newest recruit Jana Winter ... from Foxx News! I guess she'll be to the Intercept as the FBI is to all their budding 'terrorists'? What a weird, weird billionaire's plaything is the Intercept.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 10 2015 23:30 utc | 84
Odessa Protesters Give a Clear Warning to Poroshenko during his Visit
'Fascism will not pass'
UAF vs. Ukrainian Volunteers - "OUN" Battallion forced to evacuate Peski
Today, the military surrounded the headquarters of the Volunteer Battalion of the OUN in the village of Peski in the Donetsk region and demanded that the OUN hand over their weapons and leave the position.
It seems as though Poroshenko is being born-again as anti-fascist?
With the assertion of the OPR and this 'bold confrontation' ... is 'federalization' to be born-again next?
Or is this the beginning of the fragmentation of Ukraine?
Posted by: jfl | Apr 11 2015 0:09 utc | 85
VR & jfl, 78-82, 85
I looked around and tried to confirm the proclamation. I had a look at the original document and it struck me as a fake.
What self-respecting group of social revolutionaries produces a document with a date stamp? Where it should be eloquent and compelling, it is dry and official. It reads more like a notice to Kiev than a manifesto. It makes no appeal to the masses, says nothing on what movements, classes, or social strata it seeks to represent.
It might be in some way related to the reported arrests of 39 people in connection with Moscow-directed "sabotage."
They were taking orders from pro-Russian separatist leaders in Ukraine's rebel-controlled east and were planning the murder of a lawmaker and several pro-Western activists, SBU chief Valentin Nalivaichenko said."According to their plan, this would be the start of the seizure of territory to wrest Odessa and its surrounding region and create a new quasi-republic," he said.
Whatever the reality of the new Odessa government, it is clear that Poroshenko is continuing to consolidate his authority. If the account of the OUN battalion at 85 is correct, all volunteer battalions have been brought under the (formal) control of the military. OUN and Pravyi Sektor were the last holdouts, they're in the 93rd. Brigade now, though PS is still at the front.
But there remains the problem of mass social unrest. Novorossiyan analyst Aleksei Bluminov argues Social protests may spiral into "left terror" in Ukraine after the ultra-right Kiev bans communist and left ideology
"The ban of the Communist, and in fact, any left-wing ideology, and the establishment of criminal penalties for the promotion of corresponding ideas is not an accident or a deviation. It is a natural result of the policy carried out in Ukraine for the past year by the winning ultra-right forces."The current phase of repression and persecution against the left is directly linked to catastrophic failures in government policy by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, imposing on the country the measures dictated by IMF under the guise of 'austerity'," said the analyst.
Eric Zuess has it pitched about right in these two pieces. Two bloggers who sought an independent investigation of the Odessa Profsoyuz arson were "disappeared" earlier this week, and the independent Vesti was attacked as well as thousands of websites shut down by MiniTrue in Banderastan. "Whereas none of the perpetrators of the massacre has been prosecuted, the regime is trying to eliminate its opponents." "Yarosh helps Obama not only by terrorizing the few remaining independent news media in Ukraine, but also by installing Obama’s regime there, and now, increasingly, by fighting his war there."
I do not think the "Odessa Commune" has arrived quite yet. But it there is some fear that this sort of resistance is an option. Borotba, for its part, vows to continue the struggle.
The Ukrainian junta only implements what it promised a year ago on the Maidan, where anti-communism and demands to punish the left were not only the norm, but rather a dress code. It went unnoticed only by those who did not want to see reality because of political myopia, cowardice, conformism, or opportunism for short-term gain.Naturally, with the most consistent, ambitious and tough anti-social policies in the history of Ukraine, the far-right regime is trying to protect itself from the sole ideology that can objectively lead the resistance to its dictates, through political repression and censorship.
Now that's a Manifesto. "I'm for the revolution's coming, I don't know where she's been...."
Posted by: rufus magister | Apr 11 2015 2:45 utc | 86
04/10/2015 21:40
The battalion of Ukrainian nationalists "OUN" presents an obstacle to fulfill the Minsk agreements, and is being removed from Peski.
This was announced by the head of information service for the General Command of the Ukrainian military forces, Aleksey Mazepa.
“This was decided in order to protect life and wellness of personnel of the Ukrainian forces and to definitively fulfill the Minsk agreements”, remarked Mazepa.
In fact, the relocation of the armed formation of Ukrainian nationalists is being accomplished under guns of military disciplinary service of the Ukrainian forces. Troops of 93rd mobile brigade are trying to disarm nationalists in Peski.
This is second incident of conflicting regular army and punitive battalions.
04/10/2015 09:37
Shelling of Donetsk and settlement Spartak had subsided toward morning.
The city administration of Donetsk informed that “during evening of April 9 and the following night, clashes unfolded in area of the airport and settlement Spartak. As of 8:30 am the city is calm”.
As was clarified, Thursday, the Ukrainian punitive troops actively fired 122 mm weapons, which had to be pulled off according to the Minsk agreements.
Posted by: Fete | Apr 11 2015 4:05 utc | 87
@85
"We will not abandon our chosen path"
Zakharchenko responded to Poroshenko's assertions that the Donbass will eventually be reintegrated into Ukraine, in accordance with the principle
"one country, one language, one president"
which, Zakharchenko noted, harkens back to the Nazi doctrine of
"ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer."
Moreover, the head of the DPR pointed out that the Minsk Agreement called decentralization of authority in Ukraine, local elections, and the disarming of unlawful armed formations, which the Ukrainian government shows no intention of pursuing.
Well, one out of three, disarming of unlawful armed formations ... is about where the US is with Iran as well.
I think both Minsk II and the Iranian 'deals' are not done, and need a lot more work.
But I hope that disarming the NAZIs will stop the shelling of the Donbass.
It is hard to imagine the residents of the Donbass - or Odessa! - ever trusting the NAZIs again, though. I can imagine their just wanting to wash their hands of them. And, so far, Poroshenko is far wide of the mark. If the choice is federation or fragmentation, still looks like fragmentation from here. And if the other PRs feel the same way - as they seem to do - it's probably what is going to happen, no matter what the US/EU or Russia would rather have happen. Maybe in one hundred years ... in one hundred years the Israelis and Palestinians could be on human terms ... if once they (the Israelis) just began.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 11 2015 9:52 utc | 88
@88
“Krivbass” battalion attacked the dwellers of Krivoy Rog
It is clear now what the authorities need the volunteer battalions for. They need them for suppressions of social movements against the rise of prices, the war, closure of schools and kindergartens.
On the other hand ... this whole 'repudiation' of the NAZIs by Poroshenko may well be purely for the complicit Western media, while reality remains the province of the blogs ... and of the poor residents of Donbass, Odessa ... of all the Ukraine, really.
Posted by: jfl | Apr 11 2015 22:56 utc | 89
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That's interesting, but not as interesting as how Ukraine is going to survive its ongoing economic nightmare.
Posted by: ǝn⇂ɔ | Apr 1 2015 13:55 utc | 1