Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Sitting In The Dock At The Hague...

 

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others like him never need worry about going to prison for committing war crimes. Must be nice.

The Hague Invasion Act and the Hypocrisy of Joe Biden

by Coast Watcher

Last week, President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a war criminal” for ordering attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine. A few days ago, Biden announced at the end of his remarks:

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said on Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The White House and the State Dept. have been scrambling to explain away Biden’s remark. (...)

It was the second time that Biden confirmed that the purpose of the draconian US sanctions on Russia was never to prevent the invasion of Ukraine, which the US desperately needed to activate its plans, but to punish Russia and get its people to rise up against Putin and ultimately restore a Yeltsin-like puppet to Moscow. Without a cause those sanctions could never have been imposed. The cause was Russia’s invasion.
--Joe Lauria, Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War

Whatever the justification for accusing Putin of such crimes, Biden’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. Threatening to take out another leader is an act of war. The CIA has assisted many such coups d'etat--such as the 2014 overturn of the Ukrainian election. This is a war crime. And not many Americans are aware that the United States has created a legal fig-leaf for invading an allied country should it dare put an American on trial for the same kind of crimes Biden accuses Putin and his military of doing.

Titled "The American Service-Members Protection Act"  (or "The Hague Invasion Act"), President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2002. That was the same year the International Criminal Court (ICC) began operations at The Hague, Netherlands. The International Criminal Court was founded by the 1998 Statute of Rome as the first permanent judicial body to try persons accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The United Nations Security Council can also entrust the ICC to conduct trials in certain cases.

The American Service-Members Protection Act allows the United States to help bring those accused of war crimes to justice—should such a measure be assessed as being in America’s best interests. What really should set alarm bells ringing is the tiny fact that the law also allows the US military to invade the Netherlands, specifically The Hague, should the ICC ever dare to put an American on trial. 

Consider that for a moment. The Netherlands is a founding member of NATO since it was established in 1949 at the start of the original Cold War. The United States, its ally, has made it legal to invade and attack the Netherlands should the ICC even attempt to allow justice to prevail against US service personnel or citizens.

The Hague Invasion Act also allows the US to withdraw military assistance for any of the 138 ICC signatory countries unless they agree not to extradite Americans to stand trial at The Hague. It also prohibits ICC officials from conducting investigations in US territories. The American government has explicitly stated that it will arrest any such official that sets foot on US soil and has promised sanctions against any official who attempts to investigate American war crimes elsewhere.

So what exactly constitutes a "war crime"? According to the Geneva Conventions:

War crimes include the following serious violations of international humanitarian law:
(i) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions:
In the case of an international armed conflict, any of the following acts committed against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
• wilful killing;
• torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
• wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health;
• extensive destruction or appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
• compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
• wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of a fair and regular trial;
• unlawful deportation or transfer;
• unlawful confinement;
• taking of hostages.
Basis for the war crimes listed above
This list of grave breaches was included in the Geneva Conventions largely on the basis of crimes pursued after the Second World War by the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and at Tokyo and by national courts.

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docindex/v1_rul_rule156

The American government has killed, tortured, and imprisoned millions of people across the globe in various wars, military interventions, and regime changes, yet its so-called leaders can stand up in front of us with straight faces and have the nerve to call Putin a war criminal. It takes one to know one! In their hubris they know they can do exactly the same or worse things and that there's little to no chance of any country ever daring to put an American on trial for his/her war crimes. 

What’s even sadder is that NATO and most other countries go right along with it as if it's no big deal. War crimes are atrocities only committed by non-Americans apparently. Any American who commits a war crime will never be punished by the ICC. They'll walk free.

https://popularresistance.org/america-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/
What's the use of an international war crimes court that has no ability to punish those who commit war crimes? What's the use of not punishing war criminals who commit such acts as waterboarding, of holding and torturing their prisoners without charges for decades? You do remember the American government owns and operates Guantánamo Bay, don't you? 

Remember the prisoners being tortured and humiliated by US service personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Remember the shocking photo of that poor guy being held naked on a dog leash while a female soldier used electric shocks and taunted him with sexual abuses? Those are war crimes by any name.

The US building biolabs in the Ukraine and working on deadly pathogens there over the past eight years? Nah, that's just a walk in the park. Nothing to see here, folks--move along now before we decide to disappear you to Gitmo, too.


BIO: Coast Watcher sometimes can't believe the audacity and evil intent of world leaders. Perhaps it's good they're starting to let their facades slip. We know more about the inner workings of these murderous cabals than ever before. What's keeping us from building guillotines to rid us of these tyrannical psychopaths?

What we do know about the US biological weapons involvement in Ukraine. And this is just a thumbnail sketch…

1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar program for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the program’s main executor.

1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.

2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.

2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.

2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”

2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.

2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz and US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

2014 – Anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.

2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organization specializing in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defense.

2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".

2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".

2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programs.

2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.

2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation program is greatly expanded.

2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defense Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.

2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defense Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.

2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research center in a Wuhan laboratory, China.

2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.

February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.

February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.

March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

(Original source:  https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/2246  and more at https://canadianpatriot.org/2020/04/11/the-project-for-a-new-american-century-and-the-age-of-bioweapons-20-years-of-psychological-terror/)

Other related articles:

Hague Invasion Act Becomes Law https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law#

Legally, the US Military Can Break People Out of The Hague https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/us-can-invade-the-hague/

Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War  https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/27/can-russia-escape-the-us-trap/ 

Urging Regime Change in Russia, Biden Exposes US Aims in Ukraine https://mate.substack.com/p/urging-regime-change-in-russia-biden

International Law is a Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies to US Enemies https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/17/international-law-is-a-meaningless-concept-when-it-only-applies-to-us-enemies/#comments

The Lie of American Innocence  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-lie-of-american-innocence-686

More Evidence that the US Is Trying to Prolong this War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-us-is-trying?s=r 

The Impact of Ukraine on Yemen  https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/the-impact-of-ukraine-on-yemen/

Washington Should Think Twice Before Launching a New Cold War https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/22/washington-should-think-twice-before-launching-a-new-cold-war/ 

From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don't Justify Each Other https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/23/from-moscow-to-washington-the-barbarism-and-hypocrisy-dont-justify-each-other/ 

Yes It's a Proxy War  https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/26/yes-its-a-proxy-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

America Plea Bargains for its Crimes of Torture https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/24/john-kiriakou-the-us-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/ 

Bush War Crimes, Guantanamo In Spotlight at Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings https://therealnews.com/bush-war-crimes-guantanamo-in-spotlight-at-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings

US Lied About "Dangerous Pathogen" Research in Secret Ukrainian Biolabs https://popularresistance.org/u-s-lied-about-funding-dangerous-pathogen-research-in-secret-ukrainian-biolabs-newly-leaked-documents-reveal/

US Funds Nazis and Brings Back Firing Squads. Literally (video) https://www.rokfin.com/post/79671

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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Manufacturing Consent for the Apocalypse


Sometimes I'm not sure what presents a greater threat to humanity, nuclear war or the colossal stupidity that has made it possible. --Caitlin Johnstone

Manufacturing Consent for the Apocalypse

by C.A. Matthews


Many online bloggers and podcasters have been posting stories this week about when they first learned of the horrors of nuclear war. I'm not going to scare you with gory, nightmarish details from my dreams. I'm perhaps different in that my childhood experience of discovering the mystery of nuclear war is fairly benign, and it happened about twenty years earlier than most others.

I remember a simple black and white commercial that pictured a little blond girl of about four or five years of age. The little girl resembled me, so I felt an instant identification with her. She is shown playing in an open field, picking daisies and counting the petals, a pastime that I also enjoyed doing. All of a sudden there's a big bright flash and some clouds and the little girl is simply gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Then there are some words saying something about LBJ and the commercial ends.

That's pretty much how I remember it. At the time I had no frame of reference to understand what had happened to the little blond girl, but it was worrying. She was playing with daisy petals and then she disappeared, possibly because of a big bright flash in the sky. Did her mommy and daddy ever find her? Did her entire family and her cat and dog and bunny rabbit disappear as well? It was only years later that I realized this political ad had an anti-nuke message.


I started having nightmares about nuclear fallout during the Reagan era. Every time Reagan mentioned the "Evil Empire" I got the chills and recalled the little blond girl ad. Reagan seemed set on goading the then Soviet Union into unleashing their nuclear missiles onto the United States. He didn't seemed overly concerned about them starting a chain reaction and creating a "nuclear winter," either. The nuclear apocalypse was graphically demonstrated in several movies released about this time to add to my nightmares. (The Day After  and Testament were the most talked about films of 1983.) The message they gave was clear: Radiation and the aftermath of nuclear attack would extinguish all life on the planet, including life in the suburbs. 

 
Of course, by this time I also had learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the H-bomb testings in the Pacific, and the radiation leaks from nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island and then Chernobyl. Fictional scenarios about nuclear war aren't half as frightening as watching documentary films and reading about human beings experiencing the real thing. Any intelligent, compassionate person wouldn't wish this kind of suffering on anyone else.

And yet… the United States' government has kept its nuclear arsenal intact and has built more warheads and refurbished them in recent times. It hasn't shut down its aging, inefficient nuclear plants and replaced them with safer power alternatives such as solar panels and wind turbines. It continues to posture and poke at other nuclear powers through direct or proxy armed conflicts whenever it sees something it likes (or doesn't like), very much like a toddler who can't use his words to ask nicely for what he wants.

Our government officials never act worried that one day nuclear weapons might be used by accident or by design, destroying all life on Earth in one big bright flash in the sky. Perhaps that's because they know where Dr. Strangelove's radiation blast-proof tunnels are located under Washington DC? Perhaps they've made reservations on a flying saucer--or with Jeff Bezos--for a ride off the planet in case of nuclear Armageddon?

Let's be honest here. Our government officials don't care about you or me or the little blond girl playing in the daisy field as long as they've got their own asses covered.


And now it has gone a step further. Our government wants ordinary Americans like you, me and the little blond girl to cheer on a proxy war over shutting down a liquid natural gas pipeline by encouraging direct military engagement by NATO with a nuclear super power. You probably know which one I'm talking about. It's the country the US promised in 1991 that we wouldn't ring in with NATO bases, but with the help of other NATO countries we have. The witless American public is instructed to demand a no-fly zone over Ukraine so we can possibly ignite this proxy war into an active war between nuclear powers, a World War III.

Keep your eyes peeled for the big flash of light in the sky, folks!

The US government certainly seems eager to bring about the Apocalypse. What could be so special about Ukraine that our government is willing to manufacture consent in its citizens to support a possible nuclear conflict, to do the unspeakable? Why has the mainstream media drummed up such an intense hatred for all things Russian in such a way that ordinary people in the West are cheering for nuclear annihilation?

Journalist Sara Founder sheds light on the possible motivation:

Why is EU/Russian trade and integration so threatening to US imperialism?

The EU is the biggest investor in Russia. A new and larger double pipeline, called Nord Stream 2, was built to carry cheap natural gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea and into Europe. It was supposed to provide fuel for EU industries and heat for millions of homes, while avoiding a reliance on high-polluting coal and oil. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the project Feb. 22.

Energy comes to 62% of the EU imports from Russia. It costs much less than gas from the US, which is the largest exporter of fracked LNG gas. This is a challenge to opening new markets. With war and sanctions, US gas and oil corporations will immediately profit from skyrocketing prices for fuel and guarantee their future control of the European market.

The clash is larger than just a gas pipeline. The US economy is focused on military production. It is the largest exporter of weapons systems. But US imperialism is unable to match China’s Belt and Road development plans. More than 138 countries have signed on for new ports, railroads, industrial hubs and low-interest loans.

China’s Belt and Road development loans are far more attractive than US weapons systems and the harsh austerity plans that are attached to IMF and World Bank loans. --Sara Flounders, US Threatens Nuclear War Or Sanctions

This blurb caught online gives some more insight into what makes Ukraine "special" to warmongering capitalists:

For those who ask: "Why does Ukraine matter?"
This is why Ukraine matters.
It is the second largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population
of over 40 million - more than Poland.
Ukraine ranks:
1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);
2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.
Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
Ukraine is an important industrialized country:
1st in Europe in ammonia production;
Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products;
10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons)

And this bit of info ties it altogether:

That the U.S./NATO-instigated war in Ukraine could result in a third world war is of major concern for all of humanity, especially workers and oppressed people who ultimately bear the brunt of any war. Yet for some global billionaires — today’s ‘masters of war’ — this conflict is seen as an opportunity to further boost profits.

Among those already reaping gains are companies involved in the production and sale of weapons, planes and other military hardware. This includes 14 of the world’s 20 largest “defense” companies headquartered in the US Topping this list are Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon Technologies, which had combined arms sales in 2019 nearing $100 billion. --Betsey Piette, Lockheed and Raytheon--Today's Masters of War

It's  obvious. It's pure greed along with pure arrogance on their parts to think that they--the government officials, the billionaires and their lackeys--can survive a nuclear conflict, and it will be well worth it to their bank accounts in the end.

Don't give your consent to this sickness of disaster capitalism. Don't let ordinary Ukrainians and Russians suffer anymore for the greed of the fossil fuel billionaires worldwide who are squabbling over a natural gas pipeline. Just say no to all wars and yes to ending this conflict before it's too late for every living creature on this planet.

Don't be fooled into following these malevolent, selfish fools down the road to radioactive hell.


P.S. And xenophobic, knee-jerk reactions like this don't help either:

Putin is bad so Yuri Gagarin didn't go to space and Tchaikovsky wasn't a good composer and Dostoevsky was a lousy writer and Sputnik was designed by Lockheed Martin and Anton Chekhov was Welsh and Khabib Nurmagomedov was born in Minnesota. -- Caitlin Johnstone

Related articles and videos:

Waltzing Toward Armageddon With The Merchants of Death https://popularresistance.org/waltzing-toward-armageddon-with-the-merchants-of-death/ 

US Threatens Nuclear War Or Sanctions https://popularresistance.org/u-s-threatens-nuclear-war-or-sanctions/

Ukrainian Leftist Criticizes Western War Drive with Russia: US is Using Ukraine as "Cannon Fodder"   https://multipolarista.com/2022/03/14/ukrainian-leftist-war-russia-us/ 

What Polls About a Ukraine No Fly Zone Really Tell Us https://popularresistance.org/what-polls-about-a-ukraine-no-fly-zone-really-tell-us/

International Law Is A Meaningless Concept When It Only Applies to US Enemies  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/international-law-is-a-meaningless/comments?s=r 

Lockheed and Raytheon--Today's Masters of War  https://popularresistance.org/lockheed-and-raytheon-todays-masters-of-war/

Ukrainians Are Getting Across the US-Mexico Border But Russians Fleeing Putin Are Not https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvq3b/ukrainians-are-getting-across-the-us-mexico-border-but-russians-fleeing-putin-are-not

The New York Times Now Admits the Biden Laptop--Falsely Called "Russian Disinformation"--is Authentic  https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nyt-now-admits-the-biden-laptop

NATO Is Not A Defensive International Organization https://popularresistance.org/nato-is-not-a-defensive-international-organization-but-was-founded-to-threaten-the-ussr/ 

The Awesome Power of US Propaganda  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-awesome-power-of-us-propaganda?s=r

Western Double-Standards--Russian Oil Bad, Saudi Oil Good https://popularresistance.org/western-double-standards-russian-oil-bad-saudi-oil-good/ 

Ukrainian TV Host Call for Genocide of Russians, Quoting Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann  https://multipolarista.com/2022/03/16/ukraine-tv-host-genocide-russians-nazi-adolf-eichmann/

MSNBC Praises Hitler to Manufacture Consent for Ukraine War https://youtu.be/L5j1qQb-Ch0 (video)

How to End This War!  https://www.rokfin.com/stream/15956

https://www.rokfin.com/stream/15956?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Campaign&utm_campaign=New+Post+Email

 

https://youtu.be/XUVxdM5giKE

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Tuesday, March 15, 2022

NATO Loves Nazis? (The History of Nazism in Ukraine)


"Western powers insisted that they were trying to prevent this war while doing everything possible to ensure that it happened. Now they say they are trying to end this war while doing everything possible to ensure it continues." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Our guest blogger/historian, Coast Watcher, fills in a lot of gaps in the picture of how Nazis came into being in what is now the country of Ukraine. This background information has been avoided altogether in the mainstream media. Please feel free to share this blog link with others who are scratching their heads over the NATO/Ukraine/Neo-Nazi connection. 

The History of Nazism in Ukraine

by Coast Watcher

The situation in Ukraine is the latest manifestation of racial turmoil that has lasted for centuries. Once part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became independent when the USSR ceased to exist and the Russian Federation began. To gain an understanding of the roots from which the current war sprang, we have to look back over 250 years.

Imperial Decree

Catherine II, aka the Great, was born in Stettin (today Szczecin, Poland), a city in what was then part of Prussia. Married to Tsar Peter III, who was himself German, she rose to ultimate authority in Russia following her husband’s assassination in 1762.

It would be fair to say Catherine was not impressed by her adopted country. The modernizing reforms of her predecessor Peter the Great had lost impetus. Vast swathes of the Russian Empire were still virtually medieval in nature. Catherine decided to promote economic and cultural reform by inviting foreigners to settle within her empire, particularly uncultivated regions such as the Ukraine province. It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the group she directed most of her energies to were her fellow Germans. She regarded German settlers as natural supporters of her rule and a bulwark against the ethnic Russians.

Catherine promised immigrants from the West numerous incentives: exemption from military service, self-governance, tax breaks, initial financial aid, 30 hectares (75 acres) of land per settler family. In addition, freedom of language was guaranteed - in particular to German immigrants. And above all, the manifesto granted immigrants freedom of religion.

These freedoms shouldn’t be underestimated. The pogróm as an article of the Tsar’s power over his subjects was a terrible thing to unleash. Most people will know of the pogróms against Jews in particular that were enacted at times throughout Russian history. Whole Jewish communities were wiped out, usually by Cossacks, Russian peasants and townsfolk who were neighbors of the Jews, all with official sanction.

The settlement by Germans led to large areas of Ukraine being developed and improved. Catherine’s program of reforms created fertile farmland and industries. However, matters changed quite radically in the following century when Tsar Nicholas I came to the throne in 1825. His reign was reactionary and autocratic and led to the rolling back of numerous reforms. Nicholas had a violent streak and would not tolerate dissent of any kind. His tendency to use brute military force against the object of his hatred of the moment led to crushing oppression of ethnic minorities within the Russian Empire and the rescinding of German settler privileges in the Ukraine. His policies caused many Germans to emigrate to the US, Canada, and many other countries. For those remaining, any love they had for their adopted country withered dramatically.

The Soviet Union vs. Ukraine

Following the Communist Revolution the ethnic Germans of the Ukraine found themselves in difficulties. Never trusted by native Russians, the Soviet regime came down hard on the German settlements, leading to anti-German pogróms, famine, and the dispossession of people whose families had farmed or worked in the region for generations.

Nazi Germany declared war on the USSR in 1941 and invaded Russian territory in Operation Barbarossa. As the blitzkrieg rolled eastward they found willing collaborators in the Ukraine Germans. Labeling them Volksdeutsche — ethnic Germans who spoke German and had German culture, but who were not themselves German citizens—the Nazis set out to transform Ukraine into a totally German province.

They recruited heavily into Nazi Einsatzgruppen (deployment groups), paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass-murder, primarily by shooting of Jews, gypsies, Soviet prisoners and everyone else on the Nazi hate list. Another term for these units was Schutzstaffel (SS), a designation that appears on the current Ukrainian Azov Battalion uniform. 

(Editor's Note: The double S in runic form is synonymous with Nazi death squads. Therefore, the symbol appearing on the uniforms of the Azov Battalion, should be a cause for alarm. Azov Battalion members profess that they believe in ridding their country of "Asiatic peoples" and ethnic Russians (people who speak Russian as a first language) are seen as "Asiatic" and,  therefore, "inferior" to "European" Ukrainians. Battalion members also profess a hatred of the Roma (Gypsy) people and LGBTQ+ persons and have openly bragged about killing them.)

To add fuel to the ethnic fire, on the orders of the Supreme Soviet all Russian Germans remaining within Russian control were forcibly deported to Siberia in the summer of 1941. Approximately half their number died in the gulags from sickness and starvation. The majority remained in Siberia until the death of Stalin. Not all of them returned to Ukraine.

The collapse of the Soviet Union meant yet another turning point in the Russian-German saga. Life “in the backyards of the empire” became increasingly difficult. More than two million Russian-Germans decided to return to Germany, the country of their ancestors. Germany accepted them as "late resettlers." Only some 800,000 citizens of German descent remain in Russia today, most of them in Siberia. Many returned to the Ukraine region, which subsequently dropped the word "the" to become the country of "Ukraine".

The Modern World

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a hard man, in a country known for producing hard men. Former KGB agent Putin has remained at the top of one of the toughest political systems in the world for over twenty years.

It’s no secret that Putin would like to restore Russian hegemony over the former territories of the USSR. The annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014 returned control of the vital Sevastopol naval base to Russia against UN censure. Equally it’s no secret that he has cooperated with the West over international affairs while sounding a note of caution against American imperialism and over-exuberance.

When Ukrainian paramilitary groups began persecuting ethnic Russians, Jews, and LGBTQ+ people in the country as a whole and particularly in the eastern region of the Donbas, Putin warned the Ukrainian government against supporting these Neo-Nazi groups.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky, President of Ukraine, is a former actor and comedian, most noted for his performance in the TV show Servant of the People in which he played the president of Ukraine. The series aired from 2015 to 2019. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Studio Kvartal 95, Zelensky's production company. Life imitated art when Zelensky became the head of this party with the help of Ukranian oil billionaire (or "oligarch") Ihor Kolomoisky. 

The Pandora Papers, the worldwide probe leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), included work by journalists from the Ukrainian media Slidstvо.Info. The Ukrainian journalists connected the shady financial dealings of Zelensky's Studio Kvartal 95 to Kolomoisky. Slidstvo found that they laundered money by passing it through the Cyprus branch of the Kolomoisky-owned Privatbank. 

The Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline built between Germany and Russia will provide Europe with plentiful cheap liquid natural gas, something that would take profits away from Kolomoisky's oil business. The Pandora Papers revealed that both Kolomoisky and Zelensky laundered money through shell companies, greatly enlarging their respective bank accounts, and could stand to lose more money if the Russian pipeline is allowed to undersell their oil interests. (Editor's note: The US and other NATO countries don't want the Nord Stream pipeline to succeed since they want to sell their natural gas to Europe using their own methods of delivery. Less competition means Western oil companies can raise the price of their natural gas worldwide.)

Zelensky (with Kolomoisky's backing) has given overt support and state funding to the Neo-Nazi paramilitary groups to keep in check ethnic Russians and others who have protested the 2014 coup that put him into power. (An estimated 14,000 ethnic Russians/Russian speakers have been killed in the Donbas region alone in recent years by these paramilitaries.) Zelensky has allowed NATO groups to provide these ethnic-cleansing paramilitaries with training and equipment. Recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the return of UK troops who had trained the likes of the Azov Battalion, the most prominent of the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi paramilitary groups. 

Does anyone see the irony in the fact that 80 years ago British forces were part of the massive Allied effort to defeat the Nazis? Does anyone in the West remember which Allied member took on the most Nazis with the greatest loss of life to their own people?  That country was the Soviet Union, now called Russia, with whom NATO is currently at loggerheads primarily over the Nord Stream pipeline and the flow of liquified natural gas to Europe. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people during World War II... Russians do not have fond memories of Nazis for obvious reasons.

Putin has warned NATO against expanding its membership any further eastward—something NATO has failed to heed. The current situation is not unlike the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Then, the USSR had established missiles in Cuba within 92 miles of the American mainland. After a tense thirteen day standoff while the world held its breath, the USSR withdrew its weapons and the situation eased. The recent establishment of a NATO base in Poland, within 100 miles of Russia's western border, almost perfectly parallels the Cuban Missile Crisis. Alas, Biden is no JFK and Putin is no Nikita Khrushchev.

Economics

Today Ukraine supplies half of the world’s sunflower oil exports and is the third largest rapeseed (canola) exporter. It provides 12% of global wheat exports, 16% of corn, 18% for barley, and 19% for canola. More than 40% of Ukraine’s annual corn and wheat shipments have headed to the Middle East or Africa. Ukraine is China’s top supplier of grain, a situation that has deep implications for that country since it is not an importer of American grain.

Some economic experts feel that the proxy war in Ukraine is a prelude to a greater mission to disable first the Russian economy and then dismantle the Chinese economy. NATO possibly feels justified in using Ukraine's Neo-Nazi paramilitaries in reaching a satisfactory conclusion to the Cold War that the break up of the USSR never provided the West. Nevermind that the average Ukrainian citizen doesn't get a say in the matter! (Nevermind if Americans and citizens of other NATO countries wind up paying more for food and fuel, too.)

The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is known as an industrial powerhouse, with heavy mining and steel-producing capacity, as well as having large coal reserves. With this traditionally ethnic Russian region returned to Russia, Ukraine would be deprived of a substantial percentage of its economic wealth. Deposits of uranium, lithium, and other rare earth metals also add to the potential for profits to whomever ultimately rules Ukraine. 

(Editor's note: Whenever a war--proxy or otherwise--breaks out, follow the money to see who really benefits from the situation. Often it's the billionaires or oligarchs who are pushing for war in order to wipe out their competitors and lock up the markets all to themselves. "Freedom" and "self-determination" are not commodities capitalists worry very much about.)

What will happen next?

It’s hard to predict. The Russians, after all, have made their wishes clear that they will not tolerate NATO bases stationed along their borders. The Western mainstream media is pumping out a frenzy of anti-Russian propaganda. Alternate sources of information and insight such as RT America and Sputnik have been pressured into shutting down in the US at the cost of thousands of American jobs. 

Anti-Russian propaganda-fueled hysteria among neoliberals reached epic heights this past week with anything and everything Russian being condemned, closed down, or removed. Russian vodka has been poured down drains and Russian breeders of Russian Blue cats can no longer register their animals with feline pedigree associations and sell them as purebreds, putting ordinary Russian distillers and cat breeders out of work.

So much for free speech and the 1st Amendment. So much for supporting ordinary workers--either American or Russian.

The West in the shape of President Biden has issued grave warnings to Russia that it must not use chemical or biological weapons in its current war. But really, why would Russia do so when its huge conventional military force is clearly dominating the much smaller Ukrainian military? It's hard to understand why Biden would bring up possible American-sponsored biolabs that the US has set up in Ukraine in recent years other than to sound like he's tougher on Putin than his predecessor. And why would Russia resort to using biological weapons in the Donbas, considering it shares a border with Ukraine and wishes to protect the lives of ethnic Russians living there? Therein lies madness.

Russia has warned the West that it regards shipments of arms and equipment to Ukraine as legitimate military targets. There’s every fear that a false flag operation will tip this proxy war between NATO and Russia into a full-scale global war, possibly igniting World War III and ending in nuclear winter. Perhaps an American ship full of arms will suddenly explode or sink--just like the Battleship Maine did in Havana Harbor in 1898, setting off the Spanish-American War. Looking closely at the history of the United States, any intelligent person will see that the US is rather prone to using such false flag techniques to justify attacking other countries. 

Remember the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War? WMDs in Iraq, anyone?

Goading the Russian Bear is a stupid mistake. Don’t complain if you get mauled.


BIO: Coast Watcher studies the past to predict future events. It's not that difficult if you keep an open mind and don't fall for Western propaganda. To find out who and what's really behind any military conflict, follow the money--even if it's being laundered through an oligarch's offshore bank account.

Related articles:

How One Ukranian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Neo-Nazi Azov Batallion  https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/how-one-ukrainian-billionaire-funded?s=r

US, UK, France Falsely Promised USSR Not To Expand NATO East of Germany (video)  https://www.rokfin.com/post/78380   

Ukraine Makes Birthday of Nazi Collaborator a National Holiday https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-nazi-collaborator-birthday-holiday-anti-semitic-1272911

The US and Ukraine Have Every Reason to Lie About the War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-us-and-ukraine-have-every-reason?s=r

Global South Rejects US/NATO Aggression  https://popularresistance.org/global-south-rejects-u-s-nato-aggression/

Victoria Nuland: "Ukraine Has Biological Research Facilities," Worried Russia May Seize Them  https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/11/victoria-nuland-ukraine-has-biological-research-facilities-worried-russia-may-seize-them%ef%bf%bc/

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine May Have Disastrous Cascading Effect for Climate https://truthout.org/articles/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-may-have-disastrous-cascading-effects-for-climate/

Russian and US Oligarchs Funnel Money for Personal and Political Gain https://truthout.org/articles/russian-and-us-oligarchs-funnel-money-to-charity-for-personal-and-political-gain/

Zelensky's Ukraine, Where the Pandora Papers Hit Hardest https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/volodymyr-zelensky-pandora-papers/igor-kolomoisky-billionaire-zelensky 

How Ukraine's Jewish President Zelensky Made Peace with Neo-Nazi Paramilitaries on the Front Lines of War with Russia  https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/

https://youtu.be/TtdWbZ-iO1I

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