Ukraine’s Rightists Return to Odessa.

Ukraine’s Rightists Return to Odessa.
 
Greg Krasovsky: When the U.S. and its allies turn a blind eye on a massacre committed by pro-U.S. far-right Ukrainian nationalists, some of whom are recognized Neo-Nazis), America discredits itself as self-proclaimed cradle and defender of democracy world-wide.
 
Selected Excerpt:
  
"For two years, Ukraine’s U.S.-backed regime has balked at investigating dozens of arson deaths in Odessa and now is doing little as far-right nationalists rally for another confrontation, writes Nicolai N. Petro.

May 2 will mark the second anniversary of one of the most horrific, politically inspired tragedies in modern European history — the fire in the Odessa trade union building that killed 48 people and wounded another 200.

Numerous pleas by the United Nations and the European Union for an objective investigation into the causes of this tragedy have gone unanswered. Multiple government commissions, both local and national, have been unable to move the case forward, partly because some of the evidence has been marked secret.

Last November, the International Consulting Group, set up by the Council of Europe, issued a scathing report about this lack of progress, and the government’s apparent disinterest in bringing those responsible to trial.

Now, as we approach the second anniversary of these tragic deaths, and the commemoration of Soviet victory in the Second World War on May 9, some of the same groups involved in the first tragedy are openly preparing for a second round.

To this end, the leading nationalist spokesman, Dmitro Yarosh, the former leader of the Right Sector, was recently invited to Odessa. There he explained his credo to his followers: “I am just not a democrat. My worldview is that of a Ukrainian nationalist. I believe that popular national government is very good, but only when democracy does not threaten the very existence of the state. We sometimes play at democracy with the likes of Kivalov [a member of parliament from Odessa — NP], with [Odessa’s mayor] Trukhanov . . . but in war time this is never good” he said, adding “the enemy needs to be dealt with as he is always deal with in wartime–neutralized.”
...
All sides are now mobilizing in what is shaping up to be a decisive test of wills between government authority and the radical nationalists. The city is being flooded by radical activists, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs is telling Odessans to prepare for “hot May holidays.” The stage is nearly set for the next bloody confrontation between the “patriots” and the “fascists.”

This time, however, the West need not stand by helplessly and watch. There is still a chance of averting another tragedy, if the Western media draws timely attention to the current preparations for it. A significant Western media presence on the ground during the critical week from May 2 to May 9, could conceivably lead the radical nationalists to reconsider their violent strategy.

Turning a blind eye to the gathering storm, however, will only embolden the most radical elements in society and further erode respect for law and order in Ukraine."

Please read rest of the article at: https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/28/ukraines-rightists-return-to-odessa/

Ukraine Seeks Ways to Recall Its Jewish Heritage.

Ukraine Seeks Ways to Recall Its Jewish Heritage.

Greg Krasovsky: Ukraine cannot honor properly & sincerely Ukrainian Jews brutally tortured & killed during the Holocaust while at the same time calling and worshiping as heroes Ukrainian Nazis (like the SS Division Galicia) and Nazi collaborators (like Stepan Bandera and OUN-UPA members and Ukrainian Nazi occupation Politzei) who actively participated in the Holocaust.

Selected Excerpts:

"The fall of the Iron Curtain and reopening to the West spurred some countries in the region to re-examine their history and to preserve and rebuild remnants of their Jewish heritage.

In Poland, commemoration of the Holocaust started with relatively small projects before mushrooming with the help of the Jewish diaspora, said Sofia Dyak, director of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv.

Such projects are spreading now in Ukraine as well, supported in part by public and private donors such as the American Jewish Committee and the German government.

...

Around one million Jews were killed during World War II on the territory that is now Ukraine. The Soviets largely ignored the genocidal nature of the Holocaust, referring to its victims generically as “Soviet citizens” and “civilians.”

After independence in 1991, Ukraine concentrated on reviving previously taboo national narratives, such as the fighters widely seen as heroes here for resisting the Russians and the Poles. But some of those Ukrainian nationalists also collaborated with the Nazi German invaders and were involved in the killing of Jews.

A few Ukrainian fighting units and parties today have adopted nationalist insignia and flags, which Russia uses to tar the Kiev government as a whole.

“Without having a clear history, people distort it,” said Yaakov Dov Bleich, a leading rabbi in Ukraine. “No one [in Ukraine] respects nationalists because they killed Jews, but because they fought for independent Ukraine."

Please read rest of the article at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-seeks-ways-to-recall-jewish-past-1461769089

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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Left-wing, Antiwar Voice in Ukraine Assaulted by Rightist Extremists.

Left-wing, Antiwar Voice in Ukraine Assaulted by Rightist Extremists.

"On April 22, the leader of the Union of Left Forces (Союз Лівих Сил) of Ukraine, Vasyl Volga, was attacked in Zaporizhia, southern Ukraine by ‘activists’ – extreme nationalists – of the Azov Battalion and Syla Natsii (Force of the Nation). Volga and his colleagues came to Zaporizhia to present the program of their party which fights for the cessation of war in Ukraine, the restoration of peace and integration of Donbass back into Ukraine.
...
Ukrainian democracy indeed. People who do not agree with the current Kyiv regime are being intimidated into silence – jailed, attacked physically or, like journalist Oleh Buzyna, killed. Freedom of opinion is crushed. Vasyl Volga said that the puppeteers of the far-right extremists who attacked him in Zaporizhia want to discredit him by labeling him a “separatist”. These puppeteers are making huge profits by sending young Ukrainians to war.

 
The Union of Left Forces led by Vasyl Volga was founded in 2008. The party advocates a neutral status for Ukraine, the restoration of close ties with Russia and the creation of a common space of security and cooperation which would include Russia and the European Union (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Kuril Islands in the Pacific.
 
In domestic policy, the party defends the idea of the socialization of the economy; the decentralization of political power into a “soft” federalization which would grant regions of Ukraine autonomy in defining cultural policy; the introduction of Russian as a second official language of Ukraine; and implementation of the European Charter of regional and minority languages.
 
 The Union of Left Forces is one of the courageous voices in Ukraine fighting the nationalistic oligarchic regime that has driven the country into an economic abyss and a fratricidal civil war."

Please read the rest of the article at:  http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/26/left-wing-antiwar-voice-in-ukraine-assaulted-by-rightist-extremists/

Ukrainian President Poroshenko set up secret offshore firm during the heaviest fighting in East Ukraine.

Ukraine’s leader set up secret offshore firm as battle raged in Donbass.

With a Commander-in-Chief like that...

"Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, set up a secret offshore company in the British Virgin Islands at a time when his troops were being wiped out in a bloody battle with Russian troops and pro-Moscow rebels.

Leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca show that Poroshenko registered the company, Prime Asset Partners Ltd, on 21 August 2014. Records in Cyprus list him as the firm’s only shareholder. They give his official address in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev – apartment 39, Hrushevskoho Street.

The registration coincided with one of the most notorious fights in the war in Ukraine, between the Ukrainian army and Kremlin-supplied insurgents. On 20 August 2014, government troops found themselves surrounded in the eastern city of Ilovaisk. As many as 1,000 soldiers were killed as they tried to retreat under rebel and Russian fire. Several hundred more were wounded or captured."

See http://gu.com/p/4t2k8?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Why Ukraine needs Russia more than ever.

Why Ukraine needs Russia more than ever.

"In little over a year, living standards in Ukraine have fallen by half, the currency has lost 350% of its value, and inflation has skyrocketed to 43%. Yet, even as the economy has collapsed, the government has insisted on economic policies that can only be termed suicidal.

By tearing up contracts with Russia in 2014, Ukraine’s defence and aviation industries lost 80% of their income. Once the pride of Kiev, airline manufacturer Antonov went bankprupt and rocket engine producer Yuzhmash is now working just one day a week.

By severing banking ties with Moscow, Kiev has denied itself investment and a vital economic lifeline – the remittances sent back home by zarobitchane, Ukraine’s migrant workers. Up to seven million Ukrainians work in Russia, sending back $9bn in 2014 – three times the total foreign direct investment Ukraine got last year.

Reckless government borrowing has exacerbated the problem. The government was able to write off 20% of its Eurobond debt last October, allowing it to negotiate for the next IMF loan tranche which was expected in December but still not been received.

But the draconian terms imposed for this small beer are often overlooked. Ukraine will be repaying this debt until 2041, with future generations giving western creditors as much as half of the country’s GDP growth, should it ever reach 4% a year.

...

The destruction of Ukraine’s industrial base, which is heavily concentrated in the east, shifts the balance of economic and political power to the western regions, permanently marginalising opposing political voices. The advantages are clear. Fostering a sense of perpetual crisis allows the current government to argue that it must remain in power, to see its policies through. The only uncertainty is whether such a strategy can bear fruit before the country’s economy collapses.

This is not a policy that the west can endorse. Regardless of political sympathies, no western government should tolerate the deliberate impoverishment of the population for political gain. The risks of Ukraine becoming a failed state, and adding millions more to Europe’s burgeoning refugee crisis, are simply too high.

The best way to avoid such an outcome is to recognise that Ukraine’s economic survival depends not on western bailouts but on the renewal of Russian investment there. Western policymakers should insist that economic rationality take precedence over economic nationalism, and make that a condition of assistance.

Until that happens, it is hard to imagine anyone investing in Ukraine’s future, including its own people."

Please read the rest at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/ukraine-needs-russia-nicolai-petro

Syria: Another Pipeline War?

Syria: Another Pipeline War. 
By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"The fossil fuel industry’s business model is to externalize its costs by clawing in obscene subsidies and tax deductions—causing grave environmental costs, including toxic pollution and global warming. Among the other unassessed prices of the world’s addiction to oil are social chaos, war, terror, the refugee crisis overseas, and the loss of democracy and civil rights abroad and at home.

As we focus on the rise of ISIS and search for the source of the savagery that took so many innocent lives in Paris and San Bernardino, we might want to look beyond the convenient explanations of religion and ideology and focus on the more complex rationales of history and oil, which mostly point the finger of blame for terrorism back at the champions of militarism, imperialism and petroleum here on our own shores."

https://ecowatch.com/2016/02/25/robert-kennedy-jr-syria-pipeline-war/

Also consider reading:

The Red Line and the Rat Line.
Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels

"In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.​＊ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. 

Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous."

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line

Research Paper: ISIS-Turkey List. By David L. Phillips
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

"Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-l-phillips/research-paper-isis-turke_b_6128950.html