Update as of January 26, 2015: It is because of nationalism that Russia and the Ukraine are at war. Indeed, Russia still considers the Ukraine the cradle of Russian civilization, and consider one man the traitor of the Ukraine. For he is descended from the prime traitor of Russia, Ivan Mazepa.
...
Even so, both sides of this conflict are neo-fascists. This is not left versus right. Instead, it is a conflict between Ukraine nationalists who detest Russia, despite eastern and southern Ukraine consisting of 15% or more Russians. Indeed, it is Putin's war because he sees Ukrainian natioalism as a threat to his Commonwealth.
Thus the current civil war in the Ukraine is due to Putin seeing the Ukraine not as a sovereign state in its own right but as of Russia's commonwealth of nations.
In the current Ukrainian protest against the current leader of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, police violence occurred because the protesters threatened the safety of the Parliament.
Yanukovych has a spotty history as Prime Minister of the Ukraine. When his election was declared to be rigged in 2004 by the Supreme Court of Ukraine, power was handed over to Viktor Yushchenko as President and Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister.
In the election of 2006, Yanukovych won, only to be defeated in the snap election of 2007 to Yulia Tymoshenko again. Then in 2010, Yanukovych won as president but Tymoshenko was imprisoned.
Yanukovych is from the President Kuchma era (1994-2005) during which corruption scandals and their reporting led to less freedom of the press. His crony at the end of Kuchma's presidency is former deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
While Yanukovych was elected as Independent in 2010, he passed on the reins of the Party of Regions to Azarov.
There is much to doubt the claim made by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko during the 2010 election that Yanukovych was unlawfully jailed in his youth.
That rewrites history regarding his robbery and assault charges at age 17 in 1967 and his assault charges in 1970. However, he appears to have covered his tracks over the intervening years.
His family history is also dubious since he supposedly lost both his parents in his teens, but a photograph of Yanukovych shows him with his wife, son and father in 1985 and even the date of that is dubious.
There are reports that he studied at the nonexistent Faculty of Auto Transport of the Donetsk State Academy of Administration in 1999, but no one who studied there remembers him.
Later, in 2001, while Governor General of Donestsk Oblast, Yanukovych reportedly graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade as a Master of International Law, but no one remembers him being there.
As well, his academic career is dubious with some of his degrees and titles appearing to be bogus. Even the books he supposedly wrote do not exist, despite being listed at the Vernadsky National Library of the Ukraine.
Yanukovych supposedly is a major in the Ukraine military, but no one remembers him being there, too.
How does a transport executive become a politician?
It is most likely Yanukovych is a pawn of Russia. At the least, he is a corrupt politician who has been secretly following in Kuchma's footsteps since 2005, but has been pressured by the IMF to favour joining the EU.
He is also sexist, having to have suggested during the 2010 election that "Yulia Tymoshenko should either take responsibility for every word as prime minister, or go to the kitchen". Yet the people of the Ukraine feared Tymoshenko ruling in any capacity due to her conflict with Viktor Yushchenko since 2005.
In the end, with the election rigged, Yanukovych became President of the Ukraine. His power over the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine was such that Tymoshenko was denied the right to scrutinize the ballots.
By him denials about limiting press freedom and marginalizing Tymoshenko during the election campaign of 2010, he and Yanukovych's cronies have also used the justice system to falsely imprison her.
Thus Yanukovych's move to join the EU is rightly protested by the people, because to do so is to let an auto oligarch make the Ukraine subservient to the EU economic agenda.
It is a travesty of justice for the Ukraine people to suffer at the hands of brutal police violence, just because they want Yanukovych out.
As well, Yanukoych has been persecuting Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutshenko in a bid to ensure his deals with the EU profit him the most.
This suggests that the auto oligarch has a strong narcissistic personality. Given that most of his academic credentials are fake, and his military career as major, non-existent, he is a fraud.
Now he uses the police to kill protesters. I bet they never expected Yanukovych wouldn't sign the accord with the EU, which would have benefited the Ukraine immensely. Yanukovych used the excuse that since he is getting a better deal on oil from Russia, then it's pointless to sign the accord.
First he says he is a traitor to Moscow for making the Ukraine a part of the EU, and now he backs off on signing. All those protests by the Ukrainian people are done questioning his wishy-washy position on the question of joining the EU.
Who is this Yanukovych?
He is an oligarch disliked by the other oligarchs of the Ukraine because of his ties to Moscow rather than Europe and the fact that his cronies have the cushy government jobs.
During the struggle, most oligarchs remained neutral but only the chocolate king Petro Poroshenko was at every protest because his businesses are not impacted by the State like heavy industry and transportation is. This makes him a likely alternative to Tymoshenko.
Recently, it has been reported that Yanukovych was willing to deal with the opposition to resolve the present impasse. While I had hoped he was willing to be a real businessman rather than a robber baron, his retreat to Moscow left behind the revelations of his theft of the Ukraine's resources, given the opulence of his former luxurious estate.
As well, Yanukovych's deal with Putin trading oil for Ukraine products and services is disliked by the oligarchs and the people of the Ukraine because it brings up memories of how the Ukraine was used as Russia's source of food while Ukrainians were displaced by Russians. Many Ukrainians resent Russia due to massive movement of people from traditional Ruthenian land and displacement of other people merely for not adapting to the Soviet way of life, including deportation to Siberia.
This might be why the opposition was pushing Yanukovych to join the EU. Trade within the EU would have removed tariffs of EU goods and produce bought by Kiev. As well, membership in the EU would mean Ukrainians could find migrant work in other European nations and not have to go through costly travel arrangements when visiting the Ukraine.
Hopefully Yanukovych resolves this problem he started by reneging on the EU deal.
Despite this descent into bloody civil war, its root cause is Ukrainian nationalism which has led to pro-Russian factions in Crimea and Donetsk declaring independence, which is tantamount to succession and union with the Russian commonwealth.
However, this is no left versus right battle for the fascists are in power in Kiev. Likewise, the pro-Russians are not socialist activists wishing to liberate their homelands but Russians exercising their right to be free from Ukrainian control.
Yet both sides will object to calling them fascists. In the end, this squabble plays right into the hands of major powers such as China and America picking sides.
IMO nationalism is what fascists use to alienate a multicultural state, for the good of its own nation. It forgets that insisting on one nation under God has always led to anarchy when that nation is born.
In the case of the Ukraine, Putin sees it as a proxy war between Russia and the EU, with the US being the mastermind of what actually is a subtle dance into World War Three with china and Russia versus the West.
Another aspect of this proxy war is Syria versus rebel militants with Russia backing Syria and the US and Gulf States backing the rebels.
At the root of these war is the subtle influence of Big Business looking for cheap oil prices.
Update: 20140302
Well, it looks like Yanukovych lost and like a coward left his country, and fled to Moscow.
Given that the Ukraine's fight was like Arab Spring even though most of the bloodshed began in the fall of 2013, this is to be expected. Most Ukrainians know that Yanukovych was robbing the people blind. It's no wonder most smart Ukrainians used European banks rather than Ukrainian banks. How else could they be assured their savings wouldn't be stolen by Yanukovych?
However, the move of Russia to protect its interest in the Crimea has turned this civil war into a potential war between imperial Russia and the Ukraine. Russia needs the Crimea as a port. Its proposed bailout of the Ukraine by trading petroleum for products from the Ukraine was a ploy to keep the Ukraine in its pan-Slavic empire, despite the fallout during the Kosovo crisis in the mid-1990s.
Yet the Ukraine nationalists are EU-friendly because they remember what Sovietization did to the Ukraine.
Thus, the Ukraine's right wing nationalists need only Ukrainian-Americans, not America, were there to be another proxy war over the right to join the EU. This is like Kosovo needing Kosovo-Americans, except they went Islamist afterwards, due to being brainwashed by Saudi Salafists during Hajj. Eventually, the Ukraine will need European, not American, help.
All Ukrainian-Americans need to do is die for their Motherland. I'm sure the same may apply to Ukrainian-Canadians. So both Canada's and America's role in this crisis is to support the EU, but not fight the Ukraine's war for them. For it may become a fight to maintain the precarious independence they have had since the fall of the Soviet Union.
It's a no-brainer here: The Ukraine needs the Crimea as a port and vacation resort, as does Russia. Keeping the Crimea would block its use as a port by Russia, which it was before the current crisis. There was a gentleman's agreement that goods destined for Moscow would flow through Crimea. Making the Crimea totally Ukrainian would imply import duties that Russia might be hard pressed to pay.
In Ukraine proper the fight was always Ukrainians versus Russians and their allies in the government.
Hence the increased Russian presence in the Crimea is to protect its citizens there. This is Russia protecting a port they covet. Hence it is a proxy war set up by Yanukovych with the EU & America using diplomacy to demand Russia not illegally invade the Ukraine.
IMO only the EU should be responsible and show balls to protect its interest in the Ukraine. As long as the Ukraine stays within the Russian sphere of influence, only the guys running the country will profit illegally.
Hopefully when the dust clears, the Ukraine will ban the Communist Party for good.
Indeed, the Ukraine have beaten their own Ukrainian socialists into submissions.
Update: 20140318
Just the other day, Russia held a referendum in Crimea where a gang leader is Prime Minister. From Kiev comes fighting words calling out this gang leader as a criminal. Also, macho bravado is apparent as the Ukraine prepares for war.
In the West, nobody accepts that Crimean referendum which just made the region Russia. Given that a criminal runs the Crimea, I don't blame them.
Politically, it looks like the chocolate king might be the next elected President of the Ukraine. I wonder how much money he is going to bribe the present illegal government of the Ukraine to get the support of his motherland?
Update: 20140723
Apparently, the Ukraine is splintering along an anti-Kiev and pro-Kiev divide, all thanks to radicalization of the Ukraine people. No doubt this situation is only going to get worse before it gets better.
After almost a week of rumors that Russia might have shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Donetsk Oblast, now a breakaway state from the Ukraine, it looks like the US government has reversed track. It is reported that Russia supports the Donetsk People's Republic.
According to recent reports from social media and other sources, it turns out that the Ukrainian militia erred In downing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. I wonder how long before the mainstream media outlets spouting anti-Russian rhetoric reports on this new development.
Reports indicate that the Ukraine militia may have mistook Flight MH17 for a military transport plane.
Give that the Ukrainian airspace over the Ukraine is a big threat to low-flying aircraft, perhaps 10,000 feet isn't high enough to be safe. However, it is unknown if the Su-25 observed near the passenger jet might have struck a hit. Though, this is all speculation so far.
R.I.P. to the passengers and crew of Flight MH17.
Update: 20150124
Despite the resentment of the Ukrainian people directed towards Russia, theirs is a history of oppression by Tsarist Russia towards Ukrainians followed by oppression by Stalin in the 1930s and again more recently in the 1970s and 1980.
One of the results of the Ukraine while under the yoke of the Soviet Union is the development of Surzhyk due to Russification of the Ukrainian language over the past 80 years.
Thus, the nationalistic pride of Ukrainians has led to resentment by Russian-peaking Ukrainians due to the imposition of Ukrainian language as the only national language on all Ukrainian citizens.
Perhaps this civil war in the Ukraine is another example of why a single national language enforced by government decree is an unwise move by the State that is seen as oppression of the people who do not speak that language.
Originally posted: December 3, 2013 03:58 AM
Updated: March 2, 2014 0834H
Updated: July 23, 2014
Updated: January 24, 2015 0936H - added background on one of the main roots of the Ukraine-Russian 'civil war.'
Updated: January 26, 2015 0823H - Added Mazeppa and speculation the civil war is due to nationalism and mainly fascism.
References:
Ukraine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine
Ivan Mazepa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Mazepa#Historical_legacy
Russian military moves in Crimea are declaration of war, says Ukrainian PM - The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/02/ukraine-russia-war-crimea-nato
Viktor Yanukovych:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Yanukovych
Tymoshenko vs Ukraine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymoshenko_v._Ukraine
Yuriy Lutshenko:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Lutsenko
Why there is opposition to Yanukovych:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25323964
Petro Poroshenko could be next president:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116983/petro-poroshenko-ukraines-willy-wonka-could-be-its-next-president
Ukraine crisis: Protesters declare Donetsk 'republic':
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26919928
No link to Russia in Malaysian plane downing:
http://rt.com/usa/174796-intelligence-malaysia-plane-mh17-us/
Surzhyk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surzhyk
No comments:
Post a Comment