When it comes to the Ukraine proxy war, which started in earnest just about one year ago with the violent coup that overthrew then president Yanukovich and replaced him with a local pro-US oligarch, there has been no ambiguity who the key actors were: on the left, we had the west, personified by the US, the European Union, and NATO in general; while on the right we had Russia. In fact, if there was any confusion, it was about the role of that other “elephant in the room” – China. To be sure, a question few asked throughout the Ukraine civil war is just whose side is China leaning toward. After all the precarious balance of power between NATO and Russia had resulted in a stalemate in which neither side has an obvious advantage (even as the Ukraine economy died, and its currency hyperinflated, waiting for a clear winner), and the explicit or implicit support of China to either camp would make all the difference in the world, not to mention the world’s most formidable axis.
Category: Head Stories
US armored vehicles flying American flags were paraded Tuesday through the Estonian city of Narva, just a few hundred yards from the Russian border. The provocative action, coming on the heels of the first anniversary of the US-orchestrated coup in Kiev, underscores the transformation of the entire region into a zone of military confrontation, with potentially catastrophic implications for the peoples of not only Eastern Europe, but the entire planet. Spearheaded by the fascistic Right Sector militia, the coup that toppled the government of President Viktor Yanukovych on February 22 of last year was carried out with the direct support and intimate involvement of the US government.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a new mandatory visa requirement for all Americans visiting the country. The leader also called to review and downsize the number of US embassy staff in Caracas. “In order to protect our country…I have decided to implement a system of compulsory visas for all Americans entering Venezuela,” Maduro said in a speech on Saturday. This is a reciprocal measure and now all Americans will have to pay tourist visa fees equal to what “a Venezuelan pays to travel to the US.” When announcing the new regulations for US tourists, Maduro said that Venezuela apprehended American citizens who were involved in “espionage activities.”
Above all, they want Ukraine’s mighty neighbour, Russia. They want to Balkanise or dismember Russia and exploit the greatest source of natural gas on earth. As the Arctic ice melts, they want control of the Arctic Ocean and its energy riches, and Russia’s long Arctic land border. Their man in Moscow used to be Boris Yeltsin, a drunk, who handed his country’s economy to the West. His successor, Putin, has re-established Russia as a sovereign nation; that is his crime. The responsibility of the rest of us is clear. It is to identify and expose the reckless lies of warmongers and never to collude with them. It is to re-awaken the great popular movements that brought a fragile civilisation to modern imperial states. Most important, it is to prevent the conquest of ourselves: our minds, our humanity, our self respect. If we remain silent, victory over us is assured, and a holocaust beckons.
U.S. President Barack Obama apparently is going ahead with his plan for NATO missiles to be placed in Ukraine aimed against Moscow, but found a way to do it that won’t violate the warnings by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin against Washington’s directly supplying those arms to Ukraine (such as is demanded of Obama by congressional Republicans, and even by a few hawkish Democrats — all passionate supporters of Hillary Clinton). Obama’s subordinate (or dependent local leader), the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, is now arranging to receive those weapons via a less direct channel; and this arrangement couldn’t happen if the U.S. White House were opposed to it. The idea might even have originated inside the White House.
Since 2010 the troika, consisting of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union’s commission, has forced different governments in Athens to implement six consecutive austerity programs which have severely lowered the living standards of working people, devastated Greece’s social systems and plunged millions into poverty. This is why on 25 January, the majority of the Greek population decided to vote for a party that raised their hopes for a better future by promising an end to austerity. Four weeks later this dream has been shattered. In last week’s negotiations the troika left no doubt that it will not deviate from its path of insisting on the unrestricted continuation of austerity politics. In other words: The working people of Greece will have to keep filling the gaps in the state budget generated by the bank bailout in the beginning stages of the Euro crisis.
In less than a year, the United States has toppled the democratically-elected government of Ukraine, installed a Washington-backed stooge in Kiev, launched a bloody and costly war of annihilation on Russian-speaking people in the East, thrust the economy into a downward death spiral, and reduced the nation to an anarchic, failed state destined to endure a vicious fratricidal civil war for as far as the eye can see. Last week, Washington suffered its greatest military defeat in more than a decade when Ukraine’s US-backed army was soundly routed in the major railway hub of Debaltsevo. Roughly, 8,000 Ukrainian regulars along with untold numbers of tanks and armored units were surrounded in what-came-to-be-known-as “the cauldron.”
Armed pro-Russian separatists (right) escort a column of Ukrainian prisoners of war as they walk across central Donetsk Aug. 24, 2014. Reuters The Novorussians are in control of most of Debaltsevo (officially 90% officially 100% as of midnight GMT). More relevantly, there is no more organized resistance. Russian sources say that about 1000 junta soldiers have refused to surrender and are hiding in the outskirts or have fled to the south end of the cauldron. The Novorussians are not even bothering to hunt them down or return their sporadic (and inaccurate) fire: they are waiting for hunger and cold to force them to give up. A spokesman for the Novorussians has reported that all communications between the junta forces in the cauldron and their commanders have been suppressed. Russian TV stations are showing footage of Novorussian soliders raising their flag over the center of the city.
China and Russia plan to extend their strategic partnership in finance, aviation and space as well as improve trade and economic cooperation, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping. “It is essential to improve practical cooperation, as both sides will be increasing and expanding trade, and innovation,” Cheng said during a news conference in Beijing as quoted by Rossiya Segodnya. Trade between the two countries was worth $95.3 billion in 2014. China and Russia expect it to reach $200 billion by 2020. Radio Sputnik: ‘China – Russia partnership is at its best and will enhance further’ – Xiyu Yang The two countries will continue to expand cooperation in aviation, space and nuclear energy; he said adding that China will actively cooperate with Russia in finance to seek new forms of interaction.
This is important: Almost 91 domestic credit institutions have been incorporated into the new Russian financial system, the analogous of SWIFT, an international banking network. The new service, will allow Russian banks to communicate seamlessly through the Central Bank of Russia. It should be noted that Russia’s Central Bank initiated the development of the country’s own messaging system in response to repeated threats voiced by Moscow’s Western partners to disconnect Russia from SWIFT. Much of the West’s power comes from our financial hegemony. Our ability to cut people off from loans, payments and so on. Since this new system is Russian only, it isn’t, right now, that big a deal. But start connecting other countries to it, say China, Iran, India and so on, and it becomes a way of breaking financial blockades.