Who owns Ukraine's media?
There is a war being waged in Ukraine and it is playing out on television sets and in the minds of viewers.
"There is a war being waged in Ukraine, but this one is not being fought from trenches in the east. It is being played out on television sets and in the minds of viewers on an informational frontline where oligarchs and politicians fight for influence.
On this battlefield, the media serves as a weapon with which owners can exert political leverage, attack opponents or foment specific public sentiments.
Oligarchs, through their control of and influence on the media, play a critical role in shaping the discourse around and public consciousness of unfolding events. And this, says former investigative journalist and current member of parliament Sergey Leshchenko, poses a danger to democracy.
"TV stations are used for achieving political goals," he says.
Some of Ukraine's wealthiest oligarchs, including the country's president, Petro Poroshenko, Igor Kolomoisky, Dmytro Firtash, Victor Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov, own media groups. While only Poroshenko is actually in government, Kolomoisky, Firtash, Pinchuk and Akhmetov are all involved in supporting and promoting political parties or policies.
Ukraine ranked 129th out of 180 countries in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.
...
Media is a threat to Ukraine's fledgling democracy. Because oligarchic media "deprived [the public] of the possibility to receive balanced and true information about what's going on," says Telekritika's Roman Shutov, "it changes their behaviour, the political behaviour and the electoral behaviour." The use of the media in the political and economic war in which the various factions of the Ukrainian establishment are engaged is disruptive for democracy.
"As oligarchs manipulate and divide the public," Shutov argues, they create "a threat to internal stability" and pose "a challenge to democracy".
Democracy and the freedom of the press have been appropriated by the elite to create a factionalised plutocracy in the guise of a democratic state. The media, Yuri Makarov argues, looks "like a reflection in a broken mirror"."
Greg Krasovsky: What makes matters worse is that most of these Oligarch-controlled media outlet are actively fomenting Russo-phobia with tacit approval by the U.S. Government.
Please read rest of the article at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/04/owns-ukraine-media-160405130121777.html
Showing posts with label Poroshenko. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poroshenko. Show all posts
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Sunday, May 8, 2016
How Western aid enables graft addiction in Ukraine.
How Western aid enables graft addiction in Ukraine.
Greg Krasovsky: If Ukraine's foreign benefactors and well-wishers want to help reduce corruption in Ukraine, then the only way to do so is to stop turning a blind eye on corrupt politicians who are loyal to you.
Russia ignored the corruption of President Kuchma and Yanukovich's regime because he was considered pro-Russian.
The U.S. and its allies have ignored the corruption in the administrations and governments of Presidents Yuschenko and Poroshenko because they are pro-U.S.
The result? Continued raiding of the Ukrainian government budget by politicians who know that their indiscretions will be overlooked abroad by their supporters.
Playing musical chairs with Ukraine's government and cabinet of ministers will not help unless these folks are afraid of being detained and prosecuted abroad and their foreign assets (bank accounts, businesses and real estate) frozen.
But as long as these corrupt, albeit pro-US/EU/NATO politicians know that the United States and its allies will prefer their corruption to neutral or, heaven forbid, pro-Russian politicians, then you won't be able to tear them away from the Ukrainian state budget feeding troth - just like pigs.
In the meantime, ordinary Ukrainians remain poor and powerless.
Selected excerpts:
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Greg Krasovsky: If Ukraine's foreign benefactors and well-wishers want to help reduce corruption in Ukraine, then the only way to do so is to stop turning a blind eye on corrupt politicians who are loyal to you.
Russia ignored the corruption of President Kuchma and Yanukovich's regime because he was considered pro-Russian.
The U.S. and its allies have ignored the corruption in the administrations and governments of Presidents Yuschenko and Poroshenko because they are pro-U.S.
The result? Continued raiding of the Ukrainian government budget by politicians who know that their indiscretions will be overlooked abroad by their supporters.
Playing musical chairs with Ukraine's government and cabinet of ministers will not help unless these folks are afraid of being detained and prosecuted abroad and their foreign assets (bank accounts, businesses and real estate) frozen.
But as long as these corrupt, albeit pro-US/EU/NATO politicians know that the United States and its allies will prefer their corruption to neutral or, heaven forbid, pro-Russian politicians, then you won't be able to tear them away from the Ukrainian state budget feeding troth - just like pigs.
In the meantime, ordinary Ukrainians remain poor and powerless.
Selected excerpts:
"Over the past 25 years, Western donors have funneled billions of dollars into post-communist Ukraine, with two main goals: helping the country build a self-sustaining, competitive market economy, and laying the legal and regulatory groundwork for a law-governed state.
April 14 saw the appointment of yet another government dominated by insiders from Ukraine’s discredited post-communist establishment. This ended a political crisis sparked in February when Aivaras Abromavičius, the respected minister of the economy, resigned over persistent graft among his underlings.
Abromavičius’s resignation was just the latest confirmation that the hopes that accompanied the EuroMaidan movement of 2014 have crashed on the rocks of renewed asset-grabbing (see here, here and here). The gains from modest successes in economic reform have been washed out by impunity at the top along with a lack of progress in civil service reform and movement toward a law-based state.
These developments prompt the question: Can Western aid actually support the cause of reform in Ukraine? Or is Western assistance enabling an entrenched elite to continue stealing and avoid building a functioning state?
...
Ukraine’s elites deploy the courts and police to raid companies they covet. Extortion, not public service, is the primary activity of state regulatory agencies. Even more damaging is the plundering of state assets. To be sure, the current government ended the practice by which private intermediaries reaped illicit billions from the exploitation of gas subsidies — at least for now. A previous government eliminated such intermediaries in 2009 only for the scheme to return under the next administration.
The looting of state-owned companies by oligarchs and state officials, including figures close to the president and former prime minister, remains very much alive (see here and here). Privatizing these enterprises is no solution; if history is any guide, they will be sold to government cronies for a song (seehere, here and here). Tax and customs fraud along with myriad subsidies have further enriched powerful insiders, hollowing out the state in the process.
Ukraine’s leaders might have constructed effective state institutions capable of preventing such plundering and fostered a market economy that can maximize tax revenue. But their virtually unlimited access to Western assistance has freed them from the need to do so. It has also heightened their interest in maintaining the status quo.
...
How to make sure that the aid will not continue enabling Ukraine’s acquisitive elite? How to ensure that the results will be different this time around? These questions rightly occupy the attention of the donor community.
Ukraine’s benefactors face two options. The first is to resume assistance in the event that the new government puts forward a reform plan and passes some legislation recommended by donors. This is the approach the West has followed in the past.
The other option is to refrain from resuming aid until the coming to power of a truly new leadership that excludes most people with previous high-level government experience..."
Please read rest of the Article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/05/how-western-aid-enables-graft-addiction-in-ukraine/Don't forget to check out our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Survival of the richest: How oligarchs block reform in Ukraine.
Survival of the richest: How oligarchs block reform in Ukraine.
Greg Krasovsky: What an understatement!
So why do the U.S., EU and theri allies support Ukrainian oligarch Petro Proshenko as Ukraine's president?
Because he's a "loyal" anti-Russian oligarch?
The lesser of two geo-political evils?
My heart weeps for ordinary Ukrainians who are being driven into utter poverty by Ukrainian oligarchs and held hostage by corrupt Ukrainian politicians and their sponsors (foreign & domestic).
Selected excerpt:
"And while Ukraine suffers from many types of corruption, it is the penetration of its politics by the super-rich oligarchy that forms the main obstacle to reform.
Wealth is concentrated in few hands in Ukraine. Before the Euromaidan protests of 2013 the assets of Ukraine’s 50 richest individuals made up over 45 percent of GDP, almost five times as much as in the US. Politics in Ukraine is extraordinarily expensive, with campaign expenditures running at hundreds of millions of dollars. And oligarchical media ownership further strengthens the hold of the wealthy over Ukraine’s democracy.
The author highlights two key areas, the judiciary and Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises, where the nascent process of ‘de-oligarchisation’ has failed to take hold. Control over the courts means that there have been no high-profile leading figures from the Yanukovych era brought to trial. And Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises siphon off government funds to the pockets of oligarchs, providing further funds for them to control events in Kyiv."
Please read rest of the article at: http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/survival_of_the_richest_how_oligarchs_block_reform_in_ukraine6091
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https://www.facebook.com/URA.Observer/
Greg Krasovsky: What an understatement!
So why do the U.S., EU and theri allies support Ukrainian oligarch Petro Proshenko as Ukraine's president?
Because he's a "loyal" anti-Russian oligarch?
The lesser of two geo-political evils?
My heart weeps for ordinary Ukrainians who are being driven into utter poverty by Ukrainian oligarchs and held hostage by corrupt Ukrainian politicians and their sponsors (foreign & domestic).
Selected excerpt:
"And while Ukraine suffers from many types of corruption, it is the penetration of its politics by the super-rich oligarchy that forms the main obstacle to reform.
Wealth is concentrated in few hands in Ukraine. Before the Euromaidan protests of 2013 the assets of Ukraine’s 50 richest individuals made up over 45 percent of GDP, almost five times as much as in the US. Politics in Ukraine is extraordinarily expensive, with campaign expenditures running at hundreds of millions of dollars. And oligarchical media ownership further strengthens the hold of the wealthy over Ukraine’s democracy.
The author highlights two key areas, the judiciary and Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises, where the nascent process of ‘de-oligarchisation’ has failed to take hold. Control over the courts means that there have been no high-profile leading figures from the Yanukovych era brought to trial. And Ukraine’s state-owned enterprises siphon off government funds to the pockets of oligarchs, providing further funds for them to control events in Kyiv."
Please read rest of the article at: http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/survival_of_the_richest_how_oligarchs_block_reform_in_ukraine6091
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Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Ukraine Collapse Is Now Imminent?
Ukraine Collapse Is Now Imminent?
"Two years have passed since Yanukovich was deposed and, as it turns out, another ruthless clan of oligarchs has taken power. No wonder then that Ukraine is heading for a new wave of violence and chaos. Oligarchs are fighting each other, the IMF is pulling out of the country, officials issue laws and regulations only to see them repealed within a day or two by others, and raided European companies are leaving the country after being robbed by the so-called pro-Brussels oligarchic elite.
It was evident from the beginning that the US and NATO-sponsored power transition was doomed to fail. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk made no secret on his personal website about his principal partners, NATO and Victor Pinchuk’s foundation. Victor Pinchuk is a link between the Ukraine corrupt oligarchic establishment and the Western political elite.
...
The current chaos in Kiev makes it for the IMF extremely hard to keep Ukraine funded.Brazil’s IMF Director already in 2014 urged not to bend rules for Ukraine. Ukraine had failed the IMF twice before. There is now a sense of panic in Kiev, and so Ukraine leaders start to issue opposite orders. The Central Bank Governor’s ban on money exchange was repealed immediately by Yatsenyuk.
The situation of the population deteriorates rapidly as Ukraine’s currency devalues fast and bond yields spike. Companies start to understand that direct investment can disappear overnight as raided foreign companies are forced to leave the country. Protesters take over Hotels in Kyiv and return to Maidan to demand the resignation of the Ukraine rulers who came to power with the support of Washington and Brussels. Yatsenyuk now becomes a liability for its partner NATO.
It is a just matter of time before the Ukraine nationalistic militias will take power, resulting in a definite split of the country. Poroshenko can postpone the people final verdict by reviving the war in the east, but in the end, he can not escape the day of reconning."
Please read the rest at:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-28/ukraine-collapse-now-immanentTuesday, October 27, 2015
Minsk Deal? Never Heard of That! Ukrainian Forces Shelling Donetsk Airport
Minsk Deal? Never Heard of That! Ukrainian Forces Shelling Donetsk Airport
So what is there to gain from shelling the already destroyed Donetsk International Airport?
Unless you want to justify military expenditures, militarization of society and deflect attention from other serious economic problems.
War mongering always brings misery, death and destruction.
Please read the Sputnik article at:
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151027/1029156346/Ukrainian-Forces-Shelling-Donetsk-Airport.html
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Ukraine to begin long-delayed mass polio vaccination program.
Ukraine to begin long-delayed mass polio vaccination program.
Comments by Greg Krasovsky:
The Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government in Kyiv had a choice in 2014 and 2015 - negotiate a political settlement with the Donetsk & Lugansk Pro-Autonomy/Federalization/Decentralization movements and spend borrowed money on healthcare, education, pensions and other vital government programs.
Instead, they chose to spend government funds on the civil war in an attempt to crush the Donetsk & Lugansk autonomy movements by military force.
The result? War crimes and crimes against humanity, loss of countless innocent civilian lives, destroyed industry and infrastructure and no money for basic services, like Polio vaccinations for Ukrainian children.
This is what happens when war-mongering politicians have free reign and foreign political, economic and military support.
How many more Ukrainian children will have to die from disease, war and malnutrition before the people of Ukraine stop supporting politicians that would sacrifice the lives and well-being of ordinary Ukrainians for the politicians' financial interests, political power and the agenda of their foreign sponsors?
Is this what Ukrainian children deserve?
Protection from polio thanks to a batch of vaccines donated by Canada but possible spoiled due to improper storage?
Would you want to take the chance and vaccinate your child from such a batch?
See http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.3264765/ukraine-to-begin-long-delayed-mass-polio-vaccination-program-1.3264771
"Ukraine's Health Minister signed a decree today kick-starting a mass polio vaccination program in the country after two cases of the paralyzing disease were discovered in the country last month.
Ukraine currently has 3.7 million doses of the polio vaccine, which were paid for by the Canadian government. But Kyiv has been dragging its feet for weeks on starting a mass vaccination after concerns were raised about the safety of the vaccines.
...
All-Ukrainian Council on Patients' Rights and Safety is concerned that "the vaccines, which have been in storage in Ukraine since being shipped from France in May, are nearing their six-month expiration. They are supposed to be kept frozen, but Kvartiuk says the safety council believes the vaccines were thawed during transport and storage.""
"Two children aged 10-months and four-years-old were paralyzed last month after contracting the debilitating disease in the first polio cases in Europe since 2010. Hundreds more are believed to be carrying the virus.
Ukraine was previously declared polio-free, but vaccination levels have dropped to less than 50 per cent of children and 14 per cent of infants in the country. More than three million children are believed to be at risk."
Comments by Greg Krasovsky:
The Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government in Kyiv had a choice in 2014 and 2015 - negotiate a political settlement with the Donetsk & Lugansk Pro-Autonomy/Federalization/Decentralization movements and spend borrowed money on healthcare, education, pensions and other vital government programs.
Instead, they chose to spend government funds on the civil war in an attempt to crush the Donetsk & Lugansk autonomy movements by military force.
The result? War crimes and crimes against humanity, loss of countless innocent civilian lives, destroyed industry and infrastructure and no money for basic services, like Polio vaccinations for Ukrainian children.
This is what happens when war-mongering politicians have free reign and foreign political, economic and military support.
How many more Ukrainian children will have to die from disease, war and malnutrition before the people of Ukraine stop supporting politicians that would sacrifice the lives and well-being of ordinary Ukrainians for the politicians' financial interests, political power and the agenda of their foreign sponsors?
Is this what Ukrainian children deserve?
Protection from polio thanks to a batch of vaccines donated by Canada but possible spoiled due to improper storage?
Would you want to take the chance and vaccinate your child from such a batch?
See http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.3264765/ukraine-to-begin-long-delayed-mass-polio-vaccination-program-1.3264771
"Ukraine's Health Minister signed a decree today kick-starting a mass polio vaccination program in the country after two cases of the paralyzing disease were discovered in the country last month.
Ukraine currently has 3.7 million doses of the polio vaccine, which were paid for by the Canadian government. But Kyiv has been dragging its feet for weeks on starting a mass vaccination after concerns were raised about the safety of the vaccines.
...
All-Ukrainian Council on Patients' Rights and Safety is concerned that "the vaccines, which have been in storage in Ukraine since being shipped from France in May, are nearing their six-month expiration. They are supposed to be kept frozen, but Kvartiuk says the safety council believes the vaccines were thawed during transport and storage.""
"Two children aged 10-months and four-years-old were paralyzed last month after contracting the debilitating disease in the first polio cases in Europe since 2010. Hundreds more are believed to be carrying the virus.
Ukraine was previously declared polio-free, but vaccination levels have dropped to less than 50 per cent of children and 14 per cent of infants in the country. More than three million children are believed to be at risk."
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The harrowing truth of the 'forgotten' children caught in Putin's war with Ukraine?
The harrowing truth of the 'forgotten' children caught in Putin's war with Ukraine?
You can read and trust the Daily Mail, or you can learn and accept the truth.
So you want to know the truth? Can you handle it?
Here's an inconvenient truth from a Ukrainian-Russian-American lawyer and former police officer who spent May and June of 2014 in Lugansk, East Ukraine with his family:
1. The vast majority of he people of East Ukraine's Donetsk Coal Basin (Donbass), have a strong ethnic, linguistic and religious connection with Russia.
Donbass became a part of Ukraine in 1922 only because Lenin and his Bolsheviks needed additional regions in Ukraine in ordere to have enough votes for Ukraine to "voluntarily" join the Soviet Union.
The people of Donbass have never supported radical West Ukrainian nationalists, such as the Svoboda party, who despise Russians and who consider Ukrainian Nazi war criminals and collaborators, like Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian heroes and patriots.
Donbass' residents have been told by their grandparents of the atrocities committed by radical Ukrainian nationalist Nazi collaborators during WW II not just in Western and Central Ukraine, but also in Eastern Ukraine where Ukrainian Nazi collaborators where brought in by the Nazis as local police ("polizei" in German) to maintain order and help neutralize anti-Nazi insurgents.
The Donbass region has very strong economic connections with Russia, including a substantial share of industrial goods being exported to Russia.
2. The people of Donbass were appalled by the violence unleashed by Ukrainian radicals during the Euromaidan protests at mostly unarmed Ukrainian police who were simply defending government buildings.
If these US-supported violent Ukrainian nationalist radicals were not afraid to attack Ukrainian police officers with chains, metal spikes, Molotov Cocktails, bleach, acid, pistols and rifles, then what would these people do to ordinary pro-Russian Donbass residents when they came to power?
The answer came soon enough:
Around February 22, 2014 the time that Ukrainian President Yanukovich, a resident and supporter of Donbass, was being illegally ousted from office, busloads of Yanukovich supporters (Anti-EuroMaydan activists) returning to Crimea were stopped and ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists. many passengers were beaten, tortured and killed while local police stood by, watched and even participated.
When Crimeans held their referendum in March of 2014 (under the protection of Russian troops) and overwhelmingly voted to return to Russia (Crimea was "administratively transferred" from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by Soviet Union's leader Nikita Khruschyev), many residents of Donbass preferred to be in Putin's Russia that in Ukraine ruled by pro-US/NATO Ukrainian Nationalists.
In the beginning of April 2014, Anti-EuroMaydan and pro-Russian supporters seized government buildings and authority in Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
In April of 2014 government authority was seized in Slavyansk, a 100K+ city in Donetsk region, by pro-Russian activists with the military support of Russian "volunteers" including former Russian FSB officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov).
Instead of negotiating, the new interim Yatsenyuk-Turchinov Ukrainian government sent in the Ukrainian Army, newly created National Guard and volunteer battalions staffed with Ukrainian Nationalists, who began a scorched earth siege of the city with disregard for civilian casualties.
The residents of Donbass watched in horror and began to create armed self-defense units.
On May 2, 2014 dozens of Anti-EuroMaydan activists were burned alive, beaten, choked and shot to death in Odessa's House of Unions by radical Ukrainian Nationalists -- while the local police stood by and did nothing.
With all this mind, on May 11, 2014 the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk voted overwhelmingly for "governmental autonomy" from the new Yatsenyuk-Turchinov government in Kyiv, a government that the residents of Donbass considered illegitimate and dominated by Ukrainian nationalists who, if necessary, would turn any town that refused to recognize their authority, into a Slavyansk or Odessa.
Unlike what we read in Western government and Corporate Establishment Media, the referendum was democratic, had a > 80% voter turn out and those who voted against governmental autonomy (no more than 10% of voters) did so openly and without fear of retribution. These are my honest personal observations.
Many residents of Donbass mistakenly thought that Russian would offer them voluntary annexation like Crimea or would bring in Russian peace-keeping troops to protect them like the Trans-Dniester Region of Moldavia. When neither of these things happened, the local population in Donbass became afraid of what would come next.
When President Poroshenko was voted into office on May 25, 2014, instead of trying to negotiate a peaceful political settlement, he escalated the anti-autonomy/federalist/separatist military operation (the so-called "Anti-Terrorist Operation", a/k/a "ATO").
On May 26, 2014 the Donetsk International Airport was heavily damaged by Ukrainian Air Force strikes.
After President Poroshenko's inauguration, many leading political, cultural, public and business leaders of Donbass asked him to hold negotiations withe the political leaders of the Donestk and Lugansk autonomy/federalism movements, but instead he labeled them separatist terrorists and escalated the ATO.
Villages, towns and cities of Lugansk and Donetsk regions were indiscriminately shelled and bombed by the Ukranian Armed Forces (UAF).
War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the UAF when civilian areas were shelled and bombed (even those residential areas where there were no insurgents) without prior warning and without any organized evacuation of local residents.
The ATO used infamous anti-insurgency tactics against the local population -- tactics espoused and perfected not only by dictators and authoritarian regimes throughout the 20th century but also by the U.S. military and intelligence communities -- meant to shell, bomb, starve and scare the local population into submission and abandonment of the insurgents.
The Ukrainian government did not care apparently that the local population included the innocent and vulnerable segments, such as the elderly, women and children.
Why? Because Ukrainian President Poroshenko and his government received approval from their foreign supporters & allies (U.S. first and foremost) for the ATO and assurances that the US/EU political establishment would turn a blind eye on the collateral damage (i.e. war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity) necessary to contain and/or defeat the pro-Russian federalist/autonomy menace that would threaten the new pro-US/EU/NATO Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian and Western government and corporate media supporting US/EU/NATO policies and objectives in Ukraine also turned a blind eye on the UAF atrocities and engaged in blatant propaganda designed to falsely show the world that instead of the Ukrainian Army fighting local insurgents (who constitute at least 90% of the insurgent forces in Donetsk and Lugansk) and killing local civilians in the process, the Ukrainian people are battling a Russian invasion of East Ukraine.
This Daily Mail article on the consequences of war for East Ukraine's children has the same propaganda spin.
Instead of putting blame for war crimes and crimes against humanity on the Ukrainian government and armed forces -- the side that, thanks to superior government firepower, undeniably has committed the vast majority of such crimes against the local population -- the Daily Mail, attempts to place blame for such crimes against children on Russia and its President Putin.
How? For supporting and providing assistance to the DNR/LNR self-proclaimed republics and their populations after they were literally left to fend for themselves by the Ukrainian government without food, water, electricity, natural gas, heat, sewage, medical care, education, transportation, other vital government services and jobs.
If you think that I'm making up the ruthless & criminal approach of the Ukrainian government and President Poroshenko, then take a look at President Poroshenko's own words below .
So who's to blame for the death and suffering of Donbass' children, Daily Mail?
How about the hundreds of thousands of children of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria?
Russia and Putin?
I don't think so.
Gregory Krasovsky
******************************
"Poroshenko: "Their children will hole up in the basements - this is how we win the war!"
Published on Nov 14, 2014
Petro Poroshenko announced another cynical approach of the Ukrainian government to the recalcitrant residents of Donbass during his speech in Odessa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWHqj8g7Bk
Ukraine’s Tragicomedy
Made in the USA
by Justin Raimondo, June 05, 2015
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/06/04/ukraines-tragicomedy/
"Unlike tranquil Crimea, east Ukraine is in blood-stained turmoil, with the inhabitants refusing to buckle under to rule from Kiev.
This may have something to do with the merciless pounding they have taken from the Ukrainian military, which has murdered thousands of civilians in aerial bombardments of cities and towns. Kiev’s attitude toward its citizens in the eastern part of the country was succinctly summed up by Poroshenko, who famously declared:
“Our children will go to school, to kindergarten, while theirs’ will hole up in basements. This is how we will win this war!”
His statement has got to be the first time in recorded history that a government leader has boasted about targeting children in wartime."
You can read and trust the Daily Mail, or you can learn and accept the truth.
So you want to know the truth? Can you handle it?
Here's an inconvenient truth from a Ukrainian-Russian-American lawyer and former police officer who spent May and June of 2014 in Lugansk, East Ukraine with his family:
1. The vast majority of he people of East Ukraine's Donetsk Coal Basin (Donbass), have a strong ethnic, linguistic and religious connection with Russia.
Donbass became a part of Ukraine in 1922 only because Lenin and his Bolsheviks needed additional regions in Ukraine in ordere to have enough votes for Ukraine to "voluntarily" join the Soviet Union.
The people of Donbass have never supported radical West Ukrainian nationalists, such as the Svoboda party, who despise Russians and who consider Ukrainian Nazi war criminals and collaborators, like Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian heroes and patriots.
Donbass' residents have been told by their grandparents of the atrocities committed by radical Ukrainian nationalist Nazi collaborators during WW II not just in Western and Central Ukraine, but also in Eastern Ukraine where Ukrainian Nazi collaborators where brought in by the Nazis as local police ("polizei" in German) to maintain order and help neutralize anti-Nazi insurgents.
The Donbass region has very strong economic connections with Russia, including a substantial share of industrial goods being exported to Russia.
2. The people of Donbass were appalled by the violence unleashed by Ukrainian radicals during the Euromaidan protests at mostly unarmed Ukrainian police who were simply defending government buildings.
If these US-supported violent Ukrainian nationalist radicals were not afraid to attack Ukrainian police officers with chains, metal spikes, Molotov Cocktails, bleach, acid, pistols and rifles, then what would these people do to ordinary pro-Russian Donbass residents when they came to power?
The answer came soon enough:
Around February 22, 2014 the time that Ukrainian President Yanukovich, a resident and supporter of Donbass, was being illegally ousted from office, busloads of Yanukovich supporters (Anti-EuroMaydan activists) returning to Crimea were stopped and ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists. many passengers were beaten, tortured and killed while local police stood by, watched and even participated.
When Crimeans held their referendum in March of 2014 (under the protection of Russian troops) and overwhelmingly voted to return to Russia (Crimea was "administratively transferred" from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by Soviet Union's leader Nikita Khruschyev), many residents of Donbass preferred to be in Putin's Russia that in Ukraine ruled by pro-US/NATO Ukrainian Nationalists.
In the beginning of April 2014, Anti-EuroMaydan and pro-Russian supporters seized government buildings and authority in Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
In April of 2014 government authority was seized in Slavyansk, a 100K+ city in Donetsk region, by pro-Russian activists with the military support of Russian "volunteers" including former Russian FSB officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov).
Instead of negotiating, the new interim Yatsenyuk-Turchinov Ukrainian government sent in the Ukrainian Army, newly created National Guard and volunteer battalions staffed with Ukrainian Nationalists, who began a scorched earth siege of the city with disregard for civilian casualties.
The residents of Donbass watched in horror and began to create armed self-defense units.
On May 2, 2014 dozens of Anti-EuroMaydan activists were burned alive, beaten, choked and shot to death in Odessa's House of Unions by radical Ukrainian Nationalists -- while the local police stood by and did nothing.
With all this mind, on May 11, 2014 the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk voted overwhelmingly for "governmental autonomy" from the new Yatsenyuk-Turchinov government in Kyiv, a government that the residents of Donbass considered illegitimate and dominated by Ukrainian nationalists who, if necessary, would turn any town that refused to recognize their authority, into a Slavyansk or Odessa.
Unlike what we read in Western government and Corporate Establishment Media, the referendum was democratic, had a > 80% voter turn out and those who voted against governmental autonomy (no more than 10% of voters) did so openly and without fear of retribution. These are my honest personal observations.
Many residents of Donbass mistakenly thought that Russian would offer them voluntary annexation like Crimea or would bring in Russian peace-keeping troops to protect them like the Trans-Dniester Region of Moldavia. When neither of these things happened, the local population in Donbass became afraid of what would come next.
When President Poroshenko was voted into office on May 25, 2014, instead of trying to negotiate a peaceful political settlement, he escalated the anti-autonomy/federalist/separatist military operation (the so-called "Anti-Terrorist Operation", a/k/a "ATO").
On May 26, 2014 the Donetsk International Airport was heavily damaged by Ukrainian Air Force strikes.
After President Poroshenko's inauguration, many leading political, cultural, public and business leaders of Donbass asked him to hold negotiations withe the political leaders of the Donestk and Lugansk autonomy/federalism movements, but instead he labeled them separatist terrorists and escalated the ATO.
Villages, towns and cities of Lugansk and Donetsk regions were indiscriminately shelled and bombed by the Ukranian Armed Forces (UAF).
War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the UAF when civilian areas were shelled and bombed (even those residential areas where there were no insurgents) without prior warning and without any organized evacuation of local residents.
The ATO used infamous anti-insurgency tactics against the local population -- tactics espoused and perfected not only by dictators and authoritarian regimes throughout the 20th century but also by the U.S. military and intelligence communities -- meant to shell, bomb, starve and scare the local population into submission and abandonment of the insurgents.
The Ukrainian government did not care apparently that the local population included the innocent and vulnerable segments, such as the elderly, women and children.
Why? Because Ukrainian President Poroshenko and his government received approval from their foreign supporters & allies (U.S. first and foremost) for the ATO and assurances that the US/EU political establishment would turn a blind eye on the collateral damage (i.e. war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity) necessary to contain and/or defeat the pro-Russian federalist/autonomy menace that would threaten the new pro-US/EU/NATO Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian and Western government and corporate media supporting US/EU/NATO policies and objectives in Ukraine also turned a blind eye on the UAF atrocities and engaged in blatant propaganda designed to falsely show the world that instead of the Ukrainian Army fighting local insurgents (who constitute at least 90% of the insurgent forces in Donetsk and Lugansk) and killing local civilians in the process, the Ukrainian people are battling a Russian invasion of East Ukraine.
This Daily Mail article on the consequences of war for East Ukraine's children has the same propaganda spin.
Instead of putting blame for war crimes and crimes against humanity on the Ukrainian government and armed forces -- the side that, thanks to superior government firepower, undeniably has committed the vast majority of such crimes against the local population -- the Daily Mail, attempts to place blame for such crimes against children on Russia and its President Putin.
How? For supporting and providing assistance to the DNR/LNR self-proclaimed republics and their populations after they were literally left to fend for themselves by the Ukrainian government without food, water, electricity, natural gas, heat, sewage, medical care, education, transportation, other vital government services and jobs.
If you think that I'm making up the ruthless & criminal approach of the Ukrainian government and President Poroshenko, then take a look at President Poroshenko's own words below .
So who's to blame for the death and suffering of Donbass' children, Daily Mail?
How about the hundreds of thousands of children of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria?
Russia and Putin?
I don't think so.
Gregory Krasovsky
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"Poroshenko: "Their children will hole up in the basements - this is how we win the war!"
Published on Nov 14, 2014
Petro Poroshenko announced another cynical approach of the Ukrainian government to the recalcitrant residents of Donbass during his speech in Odessa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWHqj8g7Bk
Ukraine’s Tragicomedy
Made in the USA
by Justin Raimondo, June 05, 2015
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/06/04/ukraines-tragicomedy/
"Unlike tranquil Crimea, east Ukraine is in blood-stained turmoil, with the inhabitants refusing to buckle under to rule from Kiev.
This may have something to do with the merciless pounding they have taken from the Ukrainian military, which has murdered thousands of civilians in aerial bombardments of cities and towns. Kiev’s attitude toward its citizens in the eastern part of the country was succinctly summed up by Poroshenko, who famously declared:
“Our children will go to school, to kindergarten, while theirs’ will hole up in basements. This is how we will win this war!”
His statement has got to be the first time in recorded history that a government leader has boasted about targeting children in wartime."
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Who Owns Agricultural Land in Ukraine?
Who Owns Agricultural Land in Ukraine?
Transnational agribusinesses, including Monsanto, Cargill and DuPont, are increasingly investing and are taking over all aspects Ukraine’s agricultural system.
Insightful quotes quote: "The quest for Ukraine’s legendary black earth is almost complete. To the dismay of French, Polish, German farmers, the multinational agricultural corporation Monsanto, as well as DuPont Pioneer and John Deere, have all lobbied for access to the largest agricultural market in Eastern Europe. This will soon reshape the market for agricultural products in the EU and spell ruin for Europe’s farmers."
“We must ask ourselves: what impact will these investments have on the 7 million local farmers, especially with the expected lifting of the moratorium on land sales in 2016? And how will these deals affect Ukraine’s ability to control its own food supply and manage its economy in a way that will benefit the Ukrainian people?”
************
I've always been a supporter of a democratic and independent Ukraine -- a country where agricultural land and other important strategic natural resources (coal, shale oil & gas) belong to Ukranian citizens and Ukrainian-owned companies.
Today, I see a Ukrainian government that's more beholden to its foreign sponsors, including transnational carpetbaggers & vulture investors, than to Ukrainian citizens.
Once Ukraine's precious black earth -- a gift from G-d -- is tranferred into foreign hands or polluted with foreign-ownedGMOs, then the prospects for an independent and prosperous Ukraine will wither.
As they say, once you control a people's land, food supply, energy supplies and banking system, then there's no need for a military occupation, legal annexation or former colonization.
So while the current Ukrainian government is busy pumping up patriotism, shelling Eastern Ukrainian separatists & civilians and whipping up more anti-Russian war hysteria, the real war for Ukraine's economic independence is being lost -- on purpose -- in the battle for Ukraine's land and crops.
And that could do more long-term economic damage to Ukraine (its citizenry and not its transnational oligarchs) than the loss of pro-Russian regions like Crimea and the Donetsk Coal Basin.
******************
Some useful articles on what's been happening to Ukrainian agriculture:
US Agribusiness, GMOs and the Plundering of the Planet
April 7, 2015
April 7, 2015
The Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture
December 2014
New Fact Sheet Details Western Agribusiness Interests in Ukraine
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Land grab in Ukraine is Monsanto’s backdoor to the EU
Mon, Apr 6, 2015
Monsanto's Land Grab in Ukraine
February 06, 2015
More Evidence For Monsanto’s Role In The Ukrainian Coup?
January 13, 2015 by Sophie McAdam
What They're Not Telling You About Monsanto's Role In Ukraine!
Paul Craig Roberts on Russia, Ukraine, Monsanto, GMOs and more
Agenda-21, Globalist “Darling” Monsanto Finding a Backdoor into Ukraine and the E.U.
September 1, 2014
Monsanto in Ukraine - IMF loan for Ukraine may give GMO giant a backdoor into EU
Published time: August 30, 2014 15:33
Land Grabs in the Black Earth: Ukrainian Oligarchs and International Investors
30. Okt. 2013
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