UKRAINE: A US PROJECT THAT WENT PEAR SHAPED, AND GOT VLADIMIR PUTIN HOPPING MAD Welcome to the world of covert, strategic geo-politics! (Seems to me like the Cold War is alive and well, after all!) March 6, 2014 That the protesters (in Ukraine) were funded in part from the US was acknowledged in a talk in December by Victoria Nuland, an American Assistant Secretary of State. On December 13, in a nine-minute speech at the National Press Club sponsored by the US-Ukraine Foundation, Chevron, and Ukraine-in-Washington Lobby Group, Nuland said Washington has spent $5 billion since 1991 to support initiatives aimed at bringing Ukraine into the European Union. Here is a link to that speech; her mention of the $5 billion comes at around the 7:45-minute mark of the talk: youtube/watch?v=XSXBoqVOjFc&feature=youtu.be&t=7m40s That the US government was also deeply involved in the planning for the post-Yanukovych regime was also made clear by the leak February 4 of a telephone conversation between Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. The two discuss who will be “in” and “out” of the new government, and speak about the main opposition leaders as if they are chess pieces to be moved around a political chessboard. The conversation, at the 3-minute mark, also has a damaging swear word used by Nuland in reference to the inaction of the European Union in Ukraine, and this remark was widely publicized in Russia. This is important. Many Russians believe the Ukraine revolution was in large measure organized and funded by the Americans, and it is leaks like this: youtube/watch?v=2QxZ8t3V_bk which have fueled that conviction. The authenticity of this conversation (which some questioned when it was first released) has not been contested by the US State Department, and Nuland is even said to have apologized for her remark to her European Union counterparts. Therefore, it seems clear that the recording, evidently made by “hacking” an unsecured telephone line, is authentic. (Commentators have said they think Russian intelligence is behind the recording and leak of the call, seeking to drive a wedge between the US and the EU. Other commentators have said that it was an egregious oversight of the two American diplomats to speak in this way on an unsecured line.) Here is a link to a State Department briefing the day after the release of this call: youtube/watch?v=3ndaiD-IcnE And here is a link to a Radio Free Europe report on the entire matter: rferl.org/content/nuland-russia-eu-ukraine-reaction/25256828.html So, this is what has happened thus far: 1. The West, led by the US, has supported, trained, and perhaps armed, protesters who, against early expectations, have succeeded in overthrowing an elected government. 2. Kiev has now announced that the new (unelected) government has absolute power and “anti-revolutionary districts” must submit to Kiev. 3. Kiev, and the Americans, have announced that “no break-up” of Ukraine is possible. 4. Public statements have been made that Russia must not put troops onto Ukrainian soil at the risk of a US response. This is a warning against any Russian military support for East and South Ukrainians who oppose closer relations with Europe. 5. The West is announcing huge financial bailouts of Kiev, and then may very well announce a request from Kiev’s new government for a mutual defense treaty [NATO] protection against Russia. NATO will absorb Ukraine. But Russia has announced, after a top national security meeting, that it will go to war over Crimea. “If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war,” an unnamed official attending the meeting told the Financial Times two days ago. “They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia [where there was a brief Russia-Georgia war in 2008],” the official said. FUN FACT: Crimea was for centuries a Russian territory, until Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev simply gave Crimea to Ukraine (his native country) in 1954 as a gift, allegedly while drunk. The transaction was approved in Moscow without objection.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 20:08:35 +0000
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