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In light of the current military buildup along the Russian/Ukrainian border, and the failure of talks between NATO, the OSCE, the United States and Russia over the Ukraine situation, I was curious about the roots of the conflict. The following is a translation of an article written by Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, about the problem with Ukraine. It was written in July of last year (2021), and published on the kremlin.ru website.
Recently, answering a question about Russian-Ukrainian relations during the "Direct Line", he said that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a single whole. These words are not a tribute to some conjuncture, current political circumstances. I have said this more than once, this is my conviction. Therefore, I consider it necessary to state my position in detail and share my assessments of the current situation.
I would like to emphasize right away that the wall that has arisen in recent years between Russia and Ukraine, between parts of, in fact, one historical and spiritual space, I perceive as a great common misfortune, as a tragedy. These are primarily the consequences of our own mistakes made in different periods. But it is also the result of the purposeful work of those forces that have always sought to undermine our unity. The formula that is used has been known for centuries: divide and conquer. Nothing new. Hence the attempts to play on the national issue, to sow discord between people. And as a super task - to divide, and then to pit against each other parts of a single people.
To better understand the present and look into the future, we must turn to history. Of course, within the framework of the article it is impossible to cover all the events that have occurred for more than a thousand years. But I will focus on those key turning points that it is important for us – both in Russia and in Ukraine – to remember.
Both Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are the heirs of Ancient Russia, which was the largest state in Europe. Slavic and other tribes in a vast area - from Ladoga, Novgorod, Pskov to Kiev and Chernigov - were united by one language (now we call it Old Russian), economic ties, the power of the princes of the Rurik dynasty. And after the baptism of Russia – and one Orthodox faith. The spiritual choice of St. Vladimir, who was both a Novgorod and a great Kievan prince, and today largely determines our kinship.
The Kiev princely table occupied a dominant position in the Ancient Russian state. This has been the case since the end of the IX century. Oleg 's Prophetic words about Kiev: "May it be the mother of Russian cities" - preserved for posterity the "Tale of Bygone Years".
Later, like other European states of that time, Ancient Rus faced a weakening of the central government, fragmentation. At the same time, both the nobility and ordinary people perceived Russia as a common space, as their Homeland.
After the devastating invasion of Batu, when many cities, including Kiev, were devastated, fragmentation intensified. North-Eastern Russia fell into the Horde dependence, but retained limited sovereignty. Russian Russian lands in the south and west mostly became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which, I want to draw attention to this, in historical documents was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia.
Representatives of princely and boyar families went into service from one prince to another, were at enmity with each other, but also made friends, concluded alliances. On Kulikovo Field, next to the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich, Voivode Bobrok from Volhynia, the sons of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas – Andrei Polotsky and Dmitry Bryansky fought. At the same time, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello, the son of the Tver princess, led his troops to join Mamai. All these are pages of our common history, a reflection of its complexity and multidimensionality.
It is important to note that both in the western and eastern Russian lands spoke the same language. The faith was Orthodox. Until the middle of the XV century, a single church administration was maintained.
At the new turn of historical development, Lithuanian Rus and the strengthening of Moscow Rus could become points of attraction, consolidation of the territories of Ancient Russia. History decreed that Moscow became the center of reunification, which continued the tradition of ancient Russian statehood. The Moscow princes - descendants of Prince Alexander Nevsky - threw off the external yoke, began to collect historical Russian lands.
Other processes were going on in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the XIV century, the ruling elite of Lithuania adopted Catholicism. In the XVI century, the Union of Lublin with the Polish Kingdom was concluded – the "Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of Both Peoples" (in fact, Polish and Lithuanian) was formed. The Polish Catholic nobility received significant land holdings and privileges on the territory of Russia. According to the Brest Union of 1596, part of the Western Russian Orthodox clergy submitted to the authority of the Pope. Pollination and Romanization were carried out, Orthodoxy was displaced.
As a response, in the XVI–XVII centuries, the liberation movement of the Orthodox population of the Dnieper was growing. The events of the times of Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky became crucial. His supporters tried to achieve autonomy from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Russian Russian Army's petition to the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1649 referred to the observance of the rights of the Russian Orthodox population, that "the governor of Kiev was the Russian people and the Greek law, so that he would not step on the churches of God...". But the Cossacks were not heard.
B. Khmelnitsky's appeals to Moscow followed, which were considered by the Zemstvo Councils. On October 1, 1653, this supreme representative body of the Russian state decided to support the co-religionists and accept them under the patronage. In January 1654, the Pereyaslav Rada confirmed this decision. Then the ambassadors of B. Khmelnitsky and Moscow toured dozens of cities, including Kiev, whose residents took the oath to the Russian tsar. By the way, there was nothing like this at the conclusion of the Union of Lublin.
In a letter to Moscow in 1654, B. Khmelnitsky thanked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich for the fact that he "deigned to accept the entire Zaporozhian Army and the entire Russian Orthodox world under his strong and high royal hand." Russian Russians, in their appeals to both the Polish king and the Russian tsar, called the Cossacks and defined themselves as Russian Orthodox people.
During the protracted war of the Russian state with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, some of the hetmans, the heirs of B. Khmelnitsky, then "lagged" from Moscow, then sought support from Sweden, Poland, Turkey. But, I repeat, for the people, the war was, in fact, of a liberating nature. It ended with the Andrusov Truce of 1667. The final results were consolidated by the "Eternal Peace" of 1686. The Russian state included the city of Kiev and the lands of the left bank of the Dnieper, including Poltava, Chernihiv, and Zaporozhye. Their inhabitants were reunited with the main part of the Russian Orthodox people. Behind this area itself, the name "Little Russia" (Little Russia) was established.
The name "Ukraine" was then used more often in the meaning in which the Old Russian word "outskirts" is found in written sources since the XII century, when it came to various border territories. And the word "Ukrainian", judging also by archival documents, originally meant border guards who provided protection of external borders.
On the Right Bank, which remained in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the old order was restored, social and religious oppression intensified. On the left bank, the lands taken under the protection of a single state, on the contrary, began to develop actively. Residents from the other bank of the Dnieper moved here en masse. They sought support from people of the same language and, of course, the same faith.
During the Northern War with Sweden, the inhabitants of Little Russia did not have a choice – who to be with. Mazepa's rebellion was supported by only a small part of the Cossacks. People of different classes considered themselves Russian and Orthodox.
Representatives of the Cossack foremen, included in the nobility, reached the heights of a political, diplomatic, and military career in Russia. Graduates of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy played a leading role in church life. This was also the case during the Hetmanate – in fact, an autonomous state entity with its own special internal structure, and then in the Russian Empire. The Little Russians in many ways created a large common country, its statehood, culture, science. They participated in the development and development of the Urals, Siberia, the Caucasus, and the Far East. By the way, even in the Soviet period, natives of Ukraine occupied the most significant, including the highest positions in the leadership of the united state. Suffice it to say that for almost 30 years in total, the CPSU was headed by N. Khrushchev and L. Brezhnev, whose party biography was most closely connected with Ukraine.
In the second half of the XVIII century, after the wars with the Ottoman Empire, the Crimea, as well as the lands of the Black Sea region, called "Novorossiya", became part of Russia. They were populated by immigrants from all Russian provinces. After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire returned the western Old Russian lands, with the exception of Galicia and Transcarpathia, which ended up in the Austrian, and later in the Austro–Hungarian Empire.
The integration of Western Russian lands into the common state space was not only the result of political and diplomatic decisions. It was held on the basis of a common faith and cultural traditions. And again, I would like to emphasize the linguistic proximity. So, back in the early XVII century, one of the hierarchs of the Uniate Church, Joseph Rutsky, reported to Rome that the inhabitants of Muscovy called Russians from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth their brothers, that their written language was exactly the same, and their spoken language, although different, was insignificant. According to his expression, like the inhabitants of Rome and Bergamo. This, as we know, is the center and north of modern Italy.
Of course, over many centuries of fragmentation, life in different states, regional linguistic features and dialects have emerged. The literary language was enriched at the expense of the people. Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Grigory Skovoroda, Taras Shevchenko played a huge role here. Their works are our common literary and cultural heritage. Taras Shevchenko's poems are written in Ukrainian, and his prose is mostly in Russian. The books of Nikolai Gogol, a patriot of Russia, a native of Poltava region, are written in Russian, full of Little Russian folk expressions and folklore motifs. How can this legacy be shared between Russia and Ukraine? And why do it?
The south-western lands of the Russian Empire, Little Russia and Novorossiya, Crimea developed as diverse in their ethnic and religious composition. Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Karaites, Crimeans, Bulgarians, Poles, Serbs, Germans and other peoples lived here. All of them kept their faith, traditions, customs.
I'm not going to idealize anything. Both the Valuev Circular of 1863 and the Emsky Act of 1876 are known, which restricted the publication and import from abroad of religious and socio-political literature in the Ukrainian language. But the historical context is important here. These decisions were made against the backdrop of dramatic events in Poland, the desire of the leaders of the Polish national movement to use the "Ukrainian question" to their advantage. I will add that works of art, collections of Ukrainian poems, folk songs continued to be published. Objective facts indicate that in the Russian Empire there was an active process of development of the Little Russian cultural identity within the framework of a large Russian nation that united Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians.
At the same time, among the Polish elite and some part of the Little Russian intelligentsia, ideas about the Ukrainian people separate from the Russian arose and strengthened. There was no historical basis here and could not be, so the conclusions were based on a variety of fictions. Up to the point that Ukrainians are supposedly not Slavs at all, or, conversely, that Ukrainians are real Slavs, and Russians, "Muscovites", are not. Such "hypotheses" have become increasingly used for political purposes as an instrument of rivalry between European states.
Since the end of the XIX century, the Austro-Hungarian authorities have picked up this topic - in contrast to both the Polish national movement and the Muscovite sentiments in Galicia. During the First World War, Vienna contributed to the formation of the so-called Legion of Ukrainian Sich Streltsy. Galicians suspected of sympathizing with Orthodoxy and Russia were subjected to severe repression, thrown into the Talerhof and Terezin concentration camps.
The further development of events is connected with the collapse of European empires, with a fierce Civil War that unfolded in the vast expanse of the former Russian Empire, with foreign intervention.
After the February Revolution, in March 1917, the Central Rada was created in Kiev, claiming to be the highest authority. In November 1917, in her third station wagon, she announced the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) as part of Russia.
In December 1917, representatives of the UPR arrived in Brest-Litovsk, where Soviet Russia was negotiating with Germany and its allies. At a meeting on January 10, 1918, the head of the Ukrainian delegation read a note on the independence of Ukraine. Then the Central Rada in its fourth universal proclaimed Ukraine independent.
The declared sovereignty proved to be short-lived. Just a few weeks later, the Rada delegation signed a separate agreement with the countries of the German bloc. Germany and Austria-Hungary, which were in a difficult situation, needed Ukrainian bread and raw materials. In order to ensure large-scale supplies, they have obtained an agreement to send their troops and technical personnel to the UPR. In fact, they used it as a pretext for occupation.
For those who today put Ukraine under full external control, it is worth remembering that then, in 1918, such a decision turned out to be fatal for the regime ruling in Kiev. With the direct participation of the occupying forces, the Central Rada was overthrown, and Hetman P. Skoropadsky was brought to power, proclaiming instead of the UPR the Ukrainian state, which was, in fact, under the German protectorate.
In November 1918, after the revolutionary events in Germany and Austria-Hungary, P. Skoropadsky, who had lost the support of the German bayonets, took a different course and declared that "Ukraine will be the first to act in the formation of the All-Russian Federation." However, soon the regime changed again. The time has come for the so-called Directory.
In the autumn of 1918, Ukrainian nationalists proclaimed the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR), and in January 1919 announced its unification with the Ukrainian People's Republic. In July 1919, the Ukrainian units were defeated by Polish troops, the territory of the former ZUNR was under Polish rule.
In April 1920, S. Petlyura (one of the "heroes" who are being imposed on modern Ukraine) concluded secret conventions on behalf of the UNR Directory, according to which, in exchange for military support, he gave Poland the lands of Galicia and Western Volhynia. In May 1920, the Petliurists entered Kiev in a train of Polish units. But not for long. Already in November 1920, after the armistice between Poland and Soviet Russia, the remnants of Petliura's troops surrendered to the same Poles.
The example of the UPR shows how unstable were various kinds of quasi-state formations that arose in the space of the former Russian Empire during the Civil War and the troubles. Nationalists sought to create their own separate states, the leaders of the White Movement advocated an indivisible Russia. Many republics established by supporters of the Bolsheviks could not imagine themselves outside Russia either. At the same time, for various reasons, the leaders of the Bolshevik Party sometimes literally pushed them out of Soviet Russia.
So, at the beginning of 1918, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was proclaimed, which appealed to Moscow with the question of joining Soviet Russia. V. Lenin met with the leaders of this republic and urged them to act as part of Soviet Ukraine. On March 15, 1918, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) explicitly decided to send delegates to the Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, including from the Donetsk basin, and to create at the congress "one government for the whole of Ukraine." The territories of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic in the future mainly comprised the regions of the South-East of Ukraine.
According to the Riga Treaty of 1921 between the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and Poland, the western lands of the former Russian Empire were ceded to Poland. During the interwar period, the Polish government launched an active resettlement policy, seeking to change the ethnic composition in the "eastern kres" – that's how the territories of present-day Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and part of Lithuania were called in Poland. Strict polonization was carried out, local culture and traditions were suppressed. Later, during the Second World War, radical groups of Ukrainian nationalists used this as a pretext for terror not only against the Polish, but also the Jewish, Russian population.
In 1922, when the USSR was created, one of the founders of which was the Ukrainian SSR, after a rather sharp discussion among the leaders of the Bolsheviks, Lenin's plan for the formation of a union state as a federation of equal republics was implemented. In the text of the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR, and then in the Constitution of the USSR of 1924, the right of free withdrawal of republics from the Union was introduced. Thus, the most dangerous "time bomb" was laid in the foundation of our statehood. It exploded as soon as the safety, safety mechanism disappeared in the form of the leadership role of the CPSU, which eventually collapsed from the inside. The "parade of sovereignties" has begun. On December 8, 1991, the so-called Belovezhskaya Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States was signed, which declared that "the USSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist." By the way, the CIS Charter, adopted back in 1993, has not been signed or ratified by Ukraine.
In the 20-30s of the last century, the Bolsheviks actively promoted the policy of "Korenization", which in the Ukrainian SSR was carried out as Ukrainization. It is symbolic that within the framework of this policy, with the consent of the Soviet authorities, M. Hrushevsky, a former chairman of the Central Rada, one of the ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism, who once enjoyed the support of Austria–Hungary, returned to the USSR and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences.
"Korenization", of course, played a big role in the development and strengthening of Ukrainian culture, language, identity. At the same time, under the guise of fighting the so-called Russian great-power chauvinism, Ukrainization was often imposed on those who did not consider themselves Ukrainians. Russian Russian national policy – instead of a large Russian nation, a triune people consisting of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians - consolidated at the state level the position of three separate Slavic peoples: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
In 1939, the lands previously occupied by Poland were returned to the USSR. A significant part of them is attached to Soviet Ukraine. In 1940, part of Bessarabia, occupied by Romania in 1918, and Northern Bukovina entered the Ukrainian SSR. In 1948 – the Black Sea island of Snake. In 1954, the Crimean region of the RSFSR was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR - with a gross violation of the legal norms in force at that time.
I will say separately about the fate of Subcarpathian Rus, which after the collapse of Austria-Hungary ended up in Czechoslovakia. A significant part of the locals were Rusyns. Little is remembered about this now, but after the liberation of Transcarpathia by Soviet troops, the congress of the Orthodox population of the region called for the inclusion of Subcarpathian Rus in the RSFSR or directly in the USSR - as a separate Carpatho-Russian republic. But this opinion of people was ignored. And in the summer of 1945, it was announced – as the newspaper Pravda wrote – about the historical act of reunification of Transcarpathian Ukraine "with its long-standing homeland - Ukraine."
Thus, modern Ukraine is entirely the brainchild of the Soviet era. We know and remember that to a large extent it was created at the expense of historical Russia. It is enough to compare which lands were reunited with the Russian state in the XVII century and with which territories of the Ukrainian SSR seceded from the Soviet Union.
The Bolsheviks treated the Russian people as inexhaustible material for social experiments. They dreamed of a world revolution that, in their opinion, would abolish nation-states altogether. Therefore, borders were arbitrarily cut, generous territorial "gifts" were distributed. Ultimately, what exactly guided the leaders of the Bolsheviks, shredding the country, no longer matters. You can argue about the details, the background and the logic of certain decisions. One thing is obvious: Russia has actually been robbed.
Working on this article, I was based not on some secret archives, but on open documents that contain well-known facts. The leaders of modern Ukraine and their external patrons prefer not to remember these facts. But for a variety of reasons, out of place and out of place, including abroad, today it is customary to condemn the "crimes of the Soviet regime", including even those events to which neither the CPSU, nor the USSR, nor even modern Russia have anything to do with them. At the same time, the actions of the Bolsheviks to alienate its historical territories from Russia are not considered a criminal act. It is clear why. If this has led to the weakening of Russia, then our detractors are satisfied with it.
In the USSR, the borders between the republics, of course, were not perceived as state borders, they were conditional in the framework of a single country, which, with all the attributes of the federation, was essentially highly centralized - due, I repeat, to the leading role of the CPSU. But in 1991, all these territories, and most importantly, the people who lived there, suddenly found themselves abroad. And they were already really torn away from their historical homeland.
What can I say? Everything is changing. Including countries and societies. And of course, a part of one nation in the course of its development – for a number of reasons, historical circumstances – may at some point feel, realize itself as a separate nation. How to treat it? There can be only one answer: sincerely!
Do you want to create your own state? You are welcome! But on what terms? Let me remind you here of the assessment given by one of the brightest political figures of the new Russia, the first mayor of St. Petersburg A. Sobchak. As a highly professional lawyer, he believed that any decision should be legitimate, and therefore in 1992 he expressed the following opinion: the founding republics of the Union, after they themselves annulled the 1922 Treaty, should return to the borders in which they joined the Union. All the other territorial acquisitions are a subject for discussion, negotiations, because the foundation has been annulled.
In other words, leave with what you came with. It's hard to argue with such logic. I will only add that the Bolsheviks, as I have already noted, began the arbitrary redrawing of borders even before the creation of the Union, and all manipulations with territories were carried out arbitrarily, ignoring the opinion of people.
The Russian Federation has recognized the new geopolitical realities. And not just recognized, but did a lot to make Ukraine take place as an independent country. In the difficult 90s and in the new millennium, we provided significant support to Ukraine. Kiev uses its "political arithmetic", but in 1991-2013, only due to low gas prices, Ukraine saved more than $ 82 billion for its budget, and today it literally "clings" to $1.5 billion of Russian payments for the transit of our gas to Europe. Whereas with the preservation of economic ties between our countries, the positive effect for Ukraine would amount to tens of billions of dollars.
Ukraine and Russia have been developing as a single economic system for decades and centuries. The depth of cooperation that we had 30 years ago could be envied by the EU countries today. We are natural, mutually complementary economic partners. Such a close relationship can strengthen competitive advantages and increase the potential of both countries.
And it was significant for Ukraine, including a powerful infrastructure, a gas transportation system, advanced shipbuilding, aircraft, rocket, instrument engineering, scientific, design, engineering schools of the world level. Having received such a legacy, the leaders of Ukraine, declaring independence, promised that the Ukrainian economy would become one of the leading, and the standard of living of people one of the highest in Europe.
Today, industrial high-tech giants, which Ukraine and the whole country were once proud of, are lying on their sides. Over the past 10 years, the output of mechanical engineering has fallen by 42 percent. The scale of deindustrialization and overall degradation of the economy is visible by such an indicator as electricity generation, which has almost halved in Ukraine over 30 years. And finally, according to the IMF, in 2019, even before the coronavirus epidemic, the level of per capita GDP of Ukraine amounted to less than 4 thousand dollars. This is below the Republic of Albania, the Republic of Moldova and the unrecognized Kosovo. Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe.
Who is to blame for this? Are the people of Ukraine? Of course not. It was the Ukrainian authorities who squandered, wasted the achievements of many generations. We know how hardworking and talented the people of Ukraine are. He knows how to persistently and persistently achieve success, outstanding results. And these qualities, as well as openness, natural optimism, hospitality, have not gone away. The feelings of millions of people who treat Russia not just well, but with great love, just as we do Ukraine, remain the same.
Until 2014, hundreds of agreements and joint projects worked to develop our economies, business and cultural ties, strengthen security, and solve common social and environmental problems. They brought tangible benefits to people – both in Russia and in Ukraine. That's what we thought was the main thing. And that's why we fruitfully interacted with everyone, I emphasize, with all the leaders of Ukraine.
Even after the well-known events in Kiev in 2014, I gave instructions to the Russian Government to think over options for contacts between relevant ministries and departments in terms of preserving and supporting our economic ties. However, there was no counter-desire, so there is still no. Nevertheless, Russia is still one of the three main trading partners of Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians come to us for work and meet here with cordiality and support. This is how the "aggressor country" turns out.
When the USSR collapsed, many in Russia and Ukraine still sincerely believed, proceeding from the fact that our close cultural, spiritual, and economic ties would certainly remain, as well as the community of the people, who have always felt united at their core. However, events - at first gradually, and then faster and faster - began to develop in a different direction.
In fact, the Ukrainian elites decided to justify the independence of their country through the denial of its past, however, with the exception of the issue of borders. They began to mythologize and rewrite history, to erase from it everything that unites us, to talk about the period when Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and the USSR as an occupation. The common tragedy of collectivization and famine of the early 30s is being passed off as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Radicals and neo-Nazis openly and more brazenly declared their ambitions. They were indulged by both the official authorities and local oligarchs, who, having robbed the people of Ukraine, hold stolen goods in Western banks and are ready to sell their mother to save their capital. To this should be added the chronic weakness of state institutions, the position of a willing hostage of someone else's geopolitical will.
Let me remind you that quite a long time ago, long before 2014, the United States and the EU countries systematically and persistently pushed Ukraine to curtail and limit economic cooperation with Russia. As Ukraine's largest trade and economic partner, we offered to discuss emerging issues in the Ukraine–Russia–EU format. But every time we were told that Russia had nothing to do with it, they say, the issue concerns only the EU and Ukraine. De facto, Western countries have rejected repeated Russian proposals for dialogue.
Step by step, Ukraine was dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game, the purpose of which was to turn Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, into a springboard against Russia. Inevitably, the time came when the concept of "Ukraine is not Russia" was no longer satisfied. It took an "anti-Russia", which we will never put up with.
The customers of this project took as a basis the old developments of the Polish-Austrian ideologists of the creation of "anti-Moscow Russia". And there is no need to deceive anyone that this is being done in the interests of the people of Ukraine. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth never needed Ukrainian culture, much less Cossack autonomy. In Austria-Hungary, the historical Russian lands were mercilessly exploited and remained the poorest. The Nazis, who were served by collaborators, natives of the OUN-UPA, needed not Ukraine, but living space and slaves for Aryan masters.
The interests of the Ukrainian people were not thought about in February 2014. The just discontent of people caused by the most acute socio-economic problems, mistakes, inconsistent actions of the then authorities, was simply cynically used. Western countries directly intervened in the internal affairs of Ukraine, supported the coup. Radical nationalist groups acted as his battering ram. Their slogans, ideology, and outright aggressive Russophobia largely began to determine state policy in Ukraine.
Everything that has united us and brings us together so far has come under attack. First of all, the Russian language. Let me remind you that the new "Maidan" authorities first of all tried to repeal the law on state language policy. Then there was the law on "cleansing the authorities", the law on education, which practically eliminated the Russian language from the educational process.
And finally, already in May of this year, the current president introduced a bill on "indigenous peoples" to the Rada. They are recognized only by those who constitute an ethnic minority and do not have their own public education outside of Ukraine. The law has been passed. New seeds of discord have been sown. And this is in a country – as I have already noted - very complex in terms of territorial, national, linguistic composition, in the history of its formation.
An argument may be made: if you are talking about a single big nation, a triune people, then what difference does it make who people consider themselves to be - Russians, Ukrainians or Belarusians. I completely agree with this. Moreover, the definition of nationality, especially in mixed families– is the right of every person, free in his choice.
But the fact is that the situation in Ukraine today is completely different, since we are talking about a forced change of identity. And the most disgusting thing is that Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to renounce their roots, from generations of ancestors, but also to believe that Russia is their enemy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the course of forced assimilation, the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressively disposed towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us. Russian Russian people may decrease by hundreds of thousands, or even millions, as a result of such a crude, artificial gap between Russians and Ukrainians.
Our spiritual unity was also hit. As in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a new church division was started. Without hiding that they pursue political goals, the secular authorities rudely interfered in church life and brought the matter to schism, to the seizure of churches, beating priests and monks. Even the broad autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church while maintaining spiritual unity with the Moscow Patriarchate categorically does not suit them. They must destroy this visible, centuries-old symbol of our kinship at all costs.
I think it is also natural that representatives of Ukraine repeatedly vote against the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism. Marches and torchlight processions are held under the protection of the official authorities in honor of the unfinished war criminals from the SS formations. Mazepa, who betrayed everyone in a circle, Petlyura, who paid for Polish patronage with Ukrainian lands, Bandera, who collaborated with the Nazis, are put on the rank of national heroes. They are doing everything to erase from the memory of young generations the names of real patriots and winners, who have always been proud of in Ukraine.
For Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Red Army, in partisan detachments, the Great Patriotic War was precisely the Patriotic War, because they defended their home, their great common Homeland. More than two thousand became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Among them are legendary pilot Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub, fearless sniper, defender of Odessa and Sevastopol Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko, brave partisan commander Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak. This indomitable generation fought, gave their lives for our future, for us. To forget about their feat means to betray their grandfathers, mothers and fathers.
The "anti-Russia" project was rejected by millions of residents of Ukraine. Crimeans and residents of Sevastopol have made their historical choice. And people in the South-East peacefully tried to defend their position. But all of them, including children, were registered as separatists and terrorists. They began to threaten ethnic cleansing and the use of military force. And the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk took up arms to protect their home, language, and their lives. Were they left with a different choice - after the pogroms that swept through the cities of Ukraine, after the horror and tragedy of May 2, 2014 in Odessa, where Ukrainian neo-Nazis burned people alive, staged a new Khatyn? The followers of Bandera were ready to commit the same massacre in the Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk. They are still not abandoning such plans. Waiting in the wings. But they won't wait.
The coup d'etat and the subsequent actions of the Kiev authorities inevitably provoked confrontation and civil war. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the total number of victims associated with the conflict in Donbass has exceeded 13 thousand people. Among them are the elderly, children. Terrible, irreparable losses.
Russia has done everything to stop fratricide. The Minsk agreements were concluded, which are aimed at a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass. I am convinced that they still have no alternative. In any case, no one has withdrawn their signatures either under the Minsk "Package of Measures" or under the relevant statements of the leaders of the "Normandy format" countries. No one initiated the revision of the UN Security Council Resolution of February 17, 2015.
In the course of official negotiations, especially after being "pulled back" by Western partners, representatives of Ukraine periodically declare their "full commitment" to the Minsk agreements, but in fact they are guided by the position of their "unacceptability". We do not intend to seriously discuss either the special status of Donbass or guarantees for the people living here. They prefer to exploit the image of a "victim of external aggression" and trade in Russophobia. They are staging bloody provocations in the Donbass. In short, they attract the attention of external patrons and owners by any means.
Apparently, and I am becoming more and more convinced of this: Kiev simply does not need Donbass. Why? Because, firstly, the residents of these regions will never accept the orders that they have tried and are trying to impose by force, blockade, threats. And secondly, the results of both Minsk-1 and Minsk-2, which give a real chance to peacefully restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine by directly agreeing with the DPR and LPR with the mediation of Russia, Germany and France, contradict the entire logic of the anti-Russia project. And he can only hold on to the constant cultivation of the image of an internal and external enemy. And I will add - under the protectorate, under the control of the Western powers.
Which is what happens in practice. First of all, it is the creation of an atmosphere of fear in Ukrainian society, aggressive rhetoric, pandering to neo-Nazis, militarization of the country. Along with this, it is not just complete dependence, but direct external management, including the supervision of foreign advisers over the Ukrainian authorities, special services and armed forces, the military "development" of the territory of Ukraine, the deployment of NATO infrastructure. It is no coincidence that the aforementioned scandalous law on "indigenous peoples" was adopted under the guise of large-scale NATO exercises in Ukraine.
Under the same cover, the absorption of the remnants of the Ukrainian economy and the exploitation of its natural resources are also taking place. The sale of agricultural land is not far off, and who will buy them is obvious. Yes, from time to time Ukraine is allocated financial resources, loans, but under its own conditions and interests, under preferences and benefits for Western companies. By the way, who will pay these debts? Apparently, it is assumed that this will have to be done not only by today's generation of Ukrainians, but also by their children, grandchildren, and, probably, great-grandchildren.
The Western authors of the anti-Russia project are setting up the Ukrainian political system in such a way that presidents, deputies, and ministers change, but the attitude towards separation from Russia and enmity with it remains unchanged. The main campaign slogan of the incumbent president was to achieve peace. He came to power on this. The promises turned out to be lies. Nothing has changed. And in some ways, the situation in Ukraine and around Donbass has also degraded.
There is no place for sovereign Ukraine in the anti-Russia project, as well as for political forces that are trying to defend its real independence. Those who talk about reconciliation in Ukrainian society, about dialogue, about finding a way out of the impasse that has arisen, are labeled as "pro-Russian" agents.
I repeat, for many in Ukraine, the "anti-Russia" project is simply unacceptable. And there are millions of such people. But they are not allowed to raise their heads. They were practically deprived of the legal opportunity to defend their point of view. They are intimidated, driven underground. For their beliefs, for the spoken word, for openly expressing their position, they are not only persecuted, but also killed. Murderers, as a rule, go unpunished.
Only the one who hates Russia is now declared the "right" patriot of Ukraine. Moreover, as we understand it, it is proposed to build the entire Ukrainian statehood exclusively on this idea in the future. Hatred and bitterness – and world history has proved this more than once – is a very shaky basis for sovereignty, fraught with many serious risks and grave consequences.
We understand all the tricks associated with the anti-Russia project. And we will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia. And to those who make such an attempt, I want to say that in this way they will destroy their country.
The current authorities in Ukraine like to refer to the Western experience, consider it as a role model. So look at how Austria and Germany, the USA and Canada live next to each other. Similar in ethnic composition, culture, in fact with the same language, they remain sovereign states, with their own interests, with their own foreign policy. But this does not prevent their closest integration or allied relations. They have very conditional, transparent borders. And citizens, crossing them, feel at home. They create families, study, work, and do business. By the way, just like millions of natives of Ukraine who now live in Russia. For us, they are our own, relatives.
Russia is open to dialogue with Ukraine and is ready to discuss the most difficult issues. But it is important for us to understand that the partner defends his national interests, and does not serve others, is not an instrument in someone's hands to fight us.
We respect the Ukrainian language and traditions. To the desire of Ukrainians to see their state free, safe, prosperous.
I am convinced that the true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible precisely in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human, and civilizational ties have been formed for centuries, go back to the same origins, and have been tempered by common trials, achievements, and victories. Our kinship is passed down from generation to generation. It is in the hearts, in the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine, in the blood ties that unite millions of our families. Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. After all, we are one people.
Now these words are perceived by some with hostility. They can be interpreted in any way. But many people will hear me. And I will say one thing: Russia has never been and will never be "anti-Ukraine". And what Ukraine should be is up to its citizens to decide.
Vladimir Putin
(Score: 4, Interesting) by khallow on Friday January 14 2022, @01:08PM (47 children)
Notice the usual line about the Crimea:
There was no such legal norm at the time. Putin still rationalizes the invasion of Crimea.
This is a classic example of Kremlinology - where one would speculate on how a publicly viewable action told us what was going on behind the scenes. All I can say, is that Putin's rhetoric about what Russia and the Ukraine allegedly have in common, his complete glossing over of the Crimea invasion, and the repeated mention of the Russian empire indicate to me further problems for the Ukraine. Hopefully, this is just fluff rather than a grim future. But at least, if it does foreshadow aggressive Russian action against the Ukraine, it'll be by a greatly weakened Russian state rather than the power of the former USSR. The Ukraine has a chance.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 14 2022, @03:09PM (40 children)
Yeah, whatever.
Remember the 1960s, when the US was ready to launch nukes against Russia, if Russia insisted on a military buildup in Cuba? Pretty much the same thing in Crimea. Ukraine wants to be part of NATO, taking with it Russia's primary naval base, as a gift to NATO and the US.
Not to mention that the Cock Brothers spent $14 Billion to undermine one corrupt government (friendly to Russia) to install an even more corrupt government that was friendly to NATO.
Surely there are some people in the West who are intelligent enough to understand that Russia was going to respond to a coup, ongoing persecution against Russians, and the transfer of an important military base from Russian control to NATO control.
You also neglect to mention that almost all of the population of Crimea is ethnic Russian, and a majority were actually Russian citizens. Today, they are all Russian citizens.
But, yeah, you go ahead and paint the Russians as the One True Evil, Bent on World Conquest. At the same time, you can paint the US as the One True Good, on a mission of world liberation and enlightenment. Paint all the lipstick you want, but it's still just a pig with lipstick. The US, NATO, and the Cock brothers made a power play, and it didn't work out as they expected.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 14 2022, @04:59PM (21 children)
wHy Do YoU hAtE uH-mErIkA?!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 14 2022, @05:11PM (2 children)
ROFL - you've been harping away that I'm an evil warhawk, now suddenly you're gung-ho pro-American capitalism? WTF? You really are sneaking pills when no one is looking!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @07:10PM (1 child)
Your service has been noted, comrade!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:47PM
Did you know he never got to do anything more than be a supply puke because of his colorblindness? And he's mad, mad, mad about that, since it means he didn't get to give Johnny Foreigner a taste of cold steel and/or hot lead!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @05:18PM
Maybe Runaway truly is a russian shill? Or trump's buddy buddy system with them translated to his sycophants.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:37AM (16 children)
Ha, I don't mind this version of runaway when he's not preaching alt-right talking points about guns, white supremacy, anti-vaccination and them evil Democrats.
One might think his Jekyll and Hyde persona is deliberate trolling on his own journal entries to see how many 'woke' lefties he can get a reaction out of.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Vocal Minority on Saturday January 15 2022, @05:29AM (15 children)
Or perhaps people can have complex and nuanced opinions. Shocking, I know.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:43PM (14 children)
It's more that he's completely set in his ways, and we all know the one about the stopped clock being right twice a day. Don't give credit where it isn't due.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Troll) by The Vocal Minority on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:07PM (13 children)
That you seem to think my pointing out that someone is human is giving them "credit where it isn't due" does not reflect well on you, or at least on whom you seem to have become.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 17 2022, @03:51AM (12 children)
What's so great about humans? Humanity per se is nothing special. His problem is he's way, way over on the long, lagging left tail of the human bell curve.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Monday January 17 2022, @02:19PM (11 children)
You're not going to get much in the way of accolades by being nihilistic either.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 19 2022, @12:24AM (10 children)
That's realistic, not nihilistic. Nihilism would be "nothing matters and there's no value to anything," and would logically preclude statements like that. Also I'm not sure but I think in order to be a nihilist you have to pee on peoples' rugs and threaten to cut off their chonsons.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Thursday January 20 2022, @01:43PM (9 children)
The real isn't necessarily incompatible with being nihilistic, and being nihilistic isn't necessarily the same as believing, at least propositionally, in nihilism (in the parlance of our times). Also it wasn't the nihilists who peed on The Dudes rug.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 21 2022, @05:03PM (8 children)
So did you have a point with any of this, or are you just tone trolling?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Saturday January 22 2022, @04:16AM (7 children)
LOL I was going to point out that it was you who replied to me originally - but then realised you were probably the original AC. You responded to a (admittedly somewhat snarky) call for understanding with nonsensical self-justifications and continued abuse of a forum member. If I am "tone trolling" then so be it, but I am not the bad guy here.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 23 2022, @06:23AM (6 children)
I don't post AC, so sorry to burst your bubble. I don't need to; my comments stand on their own. And yes, you are.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Monday January 24 2022, @05:22AM (5 children)
No need to apologise, I'm not overly concerned if the AC was you or not, you just made a lot more sense if you were. Would be very curious to know why you think I am the bad guy though?!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 24 2022, @05:56AM (4 children)
Bullshit contentless tone trolling, complete lack of anything resembling morals, no pushback against people like Runaway...there's a list.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 25 2022, @01:27AM
Yes, the internet gives a great viewpoint from which to accurately and precisely determine the morality and worth of other people, that sounds right.
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Tuesday January 25 2022, @06:14AM (2 children)
So, essentially you think I'm a bad person for promoting understanding and not being sufficiently critical of someone you don't like. Charming.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 25 2022, @06:38PM (1 child)
No. I think you're a bad person because you're putting tone over content and dismissing people because you don't like them being meeeeeeeeeeean on the internet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:20AM
Just because you don't like the content does not mean it does not exist. The people you are interacting with on the internet are not the straw men in your head, seriously. And dismissing someone for being mean on the internet makes you a bad person (not that that is an accurate description of my attitude to the original Not-Azuma AC)??? LOL, if you didn't do that you would get trolled mercilessly. That's internet 101, don't feed the trolls.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @05:53PM (3 children)
Russia needs access to Sevastopol for access to the Mediterranean, so it's more akin to the USSR threatening to land-lock the entire US. The question isn't why Putin acted in Russia's interests, it's why Western politicians were fucking around in the first place.
As for the "Drumbeat of War" - conscript the wokes [patriotlookoutdailynews.com] with their weaponized pronouns and we'll pop Country Harvest.
(Score: 5, Informative) by quietus on Friday January 14 2022, @06:33PM (2 children)
The *latest* build-up has to do, apparently, with the United States' delivery of Javelin anti-tank systems to Ukraine. With those systems, the Ukrainians are able to slowly push the "rebels" back in the Donbass region. It is noteworthy, in that respect, that part of the troops now in the buildup have their tanks being protected [janes.com] against Javelin's, according to Jane's Defense.
If you're gonna ask why the US has delivered these Javelin systems, and since when, I'm going to venture a guess and say that the green light was given in 2019, in response to Russia's testing of a new version of the Iskander air defense system, the SSC-8 [csis.org]. This cruise missile has a range of 2,500km, violating the 1987 INF Treaty, and prompting the Trump administration to pull out of that treaty. I guess -- but your guess is as good as mine -- that the Javelin deliveries are a kind of payback for that, with deliveries starting effectively somewhere in 2020/21.
It is noteworthy, too, that the Russian's have recently started to roll out a new air defense system, the S-550 [rt.com]. If they want to export a version of that system, as they did with the SS-20 and others, it might be useful to give a demonstration in real battlefield circumstances.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @06:52PM (1 child)
Interesting analysis, do you happen to know if Russia has started deploying the T14 yet?
I still maintain my popcorn stance to the politics of the situation. Not my circus, not my clowns!
https://thehill.com/policy/international/589579-us-envoy-in-europe-says-drumbeat-of-war-is-sounding-loud [thehill.com]
https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/13/the-pentagons-efforts-to-root-out-political-extremism-almost-entirely-ignore-the-left/ [thefederalist.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by quietus on Friday January 14 2022, @06:59PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:41AM (12 children)
So that's somehow supposed to be the same? And I can't help but notice that you're rationalizing a 2014 thing based on a 1960s thing. These pretexts have a shelf life, you know.
You mean the Ukraine's primary naval base, right? I find the sequence of complaints rather trivial: Koch brothers were mean; new corrupt government is somehow worse than the old, Russian-stooge government, maybe; the alleged persecution of Russians; and the usual Nazi-level ethnic argument (well, I guess it worked for Austria and Czechoslovakia so why not the Crimea).
Looks like they're volunteering for it. So why not slap some paint on that?
A really nasty and dangerous pig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @11:35AM (11 children)
Uh, no, I don't think I'm rationalizing at all. I'm looking at history and reality. There are still a few people alive who actually remember when Russia faced an existential threat. The sons and daughters of that generation are still very much alive. Neither the Soviet nor the Russian governments has allowed any grandchildren or great grandchildren to forget the horrors of the 2nd World War. No Russian is willing to cede any measure of power away from Russia to the west, or anyone else for that matter.
The US and the west challenged Russia on Russia's own doorstep when they ran their little coup in Ukraine. Seriously, WTF were any of our people thinking? Russia would just roll over, say goodbye to their most important naval base, and turn their backs on events in Ukraine? They were going to welcome a NATO buildup in eastern Ukraine? Were we simply brain dead?
Yes, the Cuba missile crisis was very much the same as our intrusion into Ukraine. We wouldn't tolerate the Soviet projecting their military and nuclear power 90 miles off our shores, and Russia won't tolerate us doing the exact same to them.
No, I most certainly DO NOT mean Ukraine's naval base. At no point in time was the base ever in Ukraine's possession. Is Guantanamo bay Cuba's primary naval base? Absolutely not. If/when the US ever leaves Gitmo, we will probably raze it to the ground. We certainly will not leave hardware behind, certain strategic structures will be destroyed, potentially damaging secrets will be erased. We're not going to hand over one of our most advanced military bases intact. That naval base in Crimea is Russia's naval base. No way was Russia going to hand over their base intact.
Yeah, we all know that. But maybe the hog isn't the most dangerous animal in the forest? I think that more bears prey on hogs, than the other way around.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:42PM (1 child)
+Insightful.
That's the umpty-billion dollar question -- if you're working in military hardware production -- and Russia seeing shady motives behind this is very understandable.
In his article, Putin asks what the Ukrainian government actually wants with the Donbass region. That is a pertinent question, considering that the native language of the majority of the people living there is Russian, and its main industry is coal mining, a dead end fuel.
The question becomes even more pertinent when you consider who's fighting there, on the Ukrainian side. Among others, two Ukrainian neo-nazi battallions, the Aidar and Azov battallions, the Georgian Legion (Georgian volunteers with experience in the Chechen War), the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion (Chechen volunteers) and the Noman Çelebicihan battallion (Tatar volunteers). What will happen in the fog of war if these groups happen to gain victory and enter conquered rebel territory, is anyone's guess.
So, to extend your above question: WTF was anyone thinking when they started delivering Javelin anti-tank weapons, thereby upsetting the balance of power around the Donbass de facto border?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:19PM
"Ukrainian neo-nazi battallions"
So White Ukrainians who care about their people then? Fucking Shabbos Goy/Jew.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:14PM (4 children)
And just like the situation in the Ukraine, Russia created that existential threat. Or are we supposed to forget the Soviet-Nazi pact [jewishvirtuallibrary.org] to partition and consume Poland? I imagine Stalin and the upper leadership thought this would be a great way to invade Germany in a few years. It's just too bad that Germany built up their military much faster and invaded the USSR first.
I don't have any patience for paranoia created by own goals. If you're playing by the rules, and you're under threat, that's one thing. When you create the threats though - whether it be allowing a foe to grow powerful enough to threaten your existence or alienating a neighbor, then it's time to look at what you're doing wrong rather than make excuses for it.
For now, it's Russia's naval base. We'll see, as Russian power continues to decline, whether they can keep it or not. My take is not. They've lost any goodwill they had with the Ukraine.
On that, let's review an earlier paragraph:
Sounds like effective strategy actually. The worst case from a foe's point of view is not that Russia retains somehow control of Sevastopol, but that they maintain a tight Russian-Ukrainian alliance. That's not happening now.
Sure, Russia can then conquer the Ukraine easily enough, but that sets them up for a Afghanistan-style bleed except by people who can strike into the heart of Russia. Maybe they'll pull it off, but we already know what happens if they don't.
I wouldn't consider this a decisive victory in any sense, but it doesn't look good, if Putin tries something militarily.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @09:43PM (3 children)
I believe that I mentioned "history" when I talked about an existential threat. I specifically mentioned that some of the survivors of that threat were still alive today. "History". As in the Nazi invasion. Russia created that threat? Seriously?
But, regarding today's threat . . . yeah, it's a real threat, and the US and all the west is intent on capitalizing on the threat they have created.
So, let me ask you: who stands to benefit from any potential conflict between US backed forces and Russia? And, who pays the cost? How much of that cost do you pay? It appeals to my warped sense of humor when sheltered Americans cheer on yet another war.
Surely, you are aware that the last time any enemy forces stood on US territory was during the Civil War. We don't pay the costs. All we ever do is to send money, guns, and lawyers, we don't pay the real cost. But we sure reap the profits, which is why the Koch borthers invested all those billions. No Koch is going to die in the conflict. No Khallows, either.
Invest wisely, and enjoy your blood money.
Oh, lest you weren't aware, I argued long and lout against invading Iraq, for these very same reasons. Did you invest wisely before that invasion, as well?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 16 2022, @12:24AM (2 children)
Indeed. I can think of four ways. Perhaps there are more:
There's also some strategic blunders of a more general sort, such as the crazy ideological thing (which among other things, created a reality bubble with the usual, infamous Communist paranoia and brutality), aggressively invading neighbors, and just being such raging, dishonest assholes that they couldn't get anyone but their eventual existential threat to cooperate with them in any way.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:25AM (1 child)
OK. Well, if we're going to start apportioning blame for Germany's early successes, we need to remind ourselves that the world didn't know which way the US was going to jump. Remember, we had a resepected US corporation in Germany actively helping the Nazis - IBM and their newfangled business machinery tabulating data to identify all the undercover Jews, Gypsies, crazies, homos, and more.
I don't really want to play that game though. I'll insist that Germany was responsible for Germany's actions, and events would have been very similar with or without any apparent Soviet cooperation.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:53AM
Did any of the above parties, including FDR, know of this cooperation much less make decisions based on it? Sure, it looks like FDR favored [historynewsnetwork.org] Hitler for some reason, but I suspect that's more because he thought Hitler was like himself.
As to the apportioning of blame, my take is that's irrelevant. You asked if Russia was responsible for the existential threat to itself and I pointed out four ways that it unilaterally contributed greatly to that threat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:17PM (2 children)
" There are still a few people alive who actually remember when Russia faced an existential threat. The sons and daughters of that generation are still very much alive. Neither the Soviet nor the Russian governments has allowed any grandchildren or great grandchildren to forget the horrors of the 2nd World War."
Oh, please! The Jew-controlled Bolshevik Russia was going to invade Germany and Hitler knew it. Shove your anti-white, Jew propaganda back up your ass where it came from.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:16PM
I suppose you would know, since you're a Jew controlled rabble rouser yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:04PM
When you're dead no tears will be shed. We'd all appreciate if you could hurry along, need money for a pack of smokes?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @03:32AM
No way Russia was going to hand it over even razed to the ground. The Black Sea is too small for a theater of operations to be shared between more than one military power/alliance
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @03:27AM
No like the considerations about alleged ethnicity/culture/history/whatever and being "One True Evil, Bent on World Conquest" are mutually exclusive.
Can you demonstrate the latter is impossible or even unlikely?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 14 2022, @09:15PM (3 children)
:-) Do tell!
As you do for war with Russia.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 14 2022, @09:36PM (2 children)
Out of curiosity, can you articulate how that's supposed to work?
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Friday January 14 2022, @09:48PM (1 child)
:-) You tell me, you're the propagandameister
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:23AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:01AM (1 child)
No mention of Katyn Forest?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:46AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @02:35PM (2 children)
Who did the translation?
(Score: 4, Informative) by quietus on Friday January 14 2022, @05:23PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:32PM
I wonder what it would look like if translated through https://www.deepl.com/translator [deepl.com] ?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @02:48PM (9 children)
Less expensive to outfit an army, kill people and take their shit than to pay a reasonable market price for it.
The reasons (and propaganda excuses) are an excellent reflection of Hitler's invasion of Poland.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @05:50PM (8 children)
All Putin needs now is a fake incident.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday January 14 2022, @07:39PM (7 children)
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=53347 [soylentnews.org]
First on CNN: US intelligence indicates Russia preparing operation to justify invasion of Ukraine [cnn.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Troll) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:28AM (5 children)
Great setup, eh? Gives us plausible deniability for a "real flag operation"
And are we already forgetting that US intelligence has long history of lying to start wars? Why do they have credence now?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:00AM (4 children)
In The Boy Who Cried Wolf, there is still a wolf. ;)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:25AM (3 children)
:-) Yes there is... Maybe, some day we'll see it, Russia would be more like a vulture, or that other bird, they don't attack healthy, or even live prey... All this talk of war is just to distract people from the usual domestic issues
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @11:46AM (2 children)
That explains why the US hasn't walked all over Syria. You've gone overboard with the dumbassery with that.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:02PM (1 child)
What, they left? and you bring up "dumbassery".. Very funny
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:41PM
Saying 'Dombassery' might have been funny. Anyone who deems his opponents and potential opponents as weak, ineffective carrion eaters is a fool. Unless you were talking about the French?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:22PM
US intelligence and media is controlled by Jews. I can't believe anything they say to try to get White nations to fight each other. They are the real genocidal supremacists.
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Friday January 14 2022, @03:52PM
Journal entry: TL/DR...
All I know is that when I rolled out of bed this morning, the tune "Over There" by George M. Cohan was playing in my head, and as I stumbled toward the coffee machine, I wondered if this meant that the war was going to start today.
I have friends who have traveled through Russia. They say the people there are lovely folks. Too bad about the few who imagine they can still build an empire with a sufficient stack of dead citizens.
--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Isaac Asimov
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @05:21PM (21 children)
Russia wants the port, for naval and shipping access, and a better buffer between Western states. Spirituality? Hahahahhaha Putin has no shame.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @09:02PM (20 children)
Neither do Ukrainian or Western oligarchs. Bunch of stupid, infantile psychopaths fighting over who gets to screw over the Ukrainian people and extract natural resources.
If we're going to get involved, we should drone Soros [rt.com] and his useful idiots in the Democrat party too.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 14 2022, @09:50PM (13 children)
With all this whataboutism, this journal has a very retro Cold War feel. The problem with your super-duper rebuttal is that we're not reading someone else's paean to the good old days. Nor do those other people have the power to invade other countries.
As to Soros, I get he has Jew cooties which are extra-bad and has done mean things to the Bank of England. But what has he done lately? He just seems a tired afterthought here. "If we're going to kill a bunch of people, I guess we better get Soros too."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:41AM (11 children)
Soros is actively pushing Marxist-minded candidates across the country for local offices, mostly District Attorneys. All those headline cases where the DA dismisses charges against some genuine thug, or allows a school shooter out on bail, or promises to prosecute armed robberies as a misdemeanor, you're looking at Soros funded DAs.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:38AM (10 children)
Then you should be able to come up with evidence of this, right?
So does that happen and do these people get reelected?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @11:50AM (9 children)
That remains to be seen, in most cases. You should do a little simple math. Soros and company made their big push to get DAs elected starting about 2015. The riots of 2020 are little more than a year behind us. When do all those terms expire? Some of them, this year, others next year, and more in the coming years. Stay tuned, and we'll see what the voters have to say.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:21PM (8 children)
Did they? There's a lot of evidence missing from this narrative. I'd have to see the alleged names, places, and that company he's contributing to.
Part of the reason I'm skeptical here is because those DAs have bee a huge problem before Soros for generations. He may actually be making things much better. I couldn't help but notice that the only billionaires helping with the police abuse cases over the years were Soros and the Koch brothers.
Things like Marxist ideology take root when there are huge societal problems that nobody fixes. If Soros really is getting a lot of mileage out of this, then maybe we should be fixing the problems rather than shooting the messenger?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:12PM
https://communityresourcehub.org/about/
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=community+resource+hub [opensocietyfoundations.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:36PM (3 children)
Good luck collecting 'evidence'. Soros funds a ton of non-profits, which, in turn, fund various causes, which in turn fund other causes and non-profits, and a ton of money ends up in campaign funds. If you want to chase them all down, go for it, but I've been assured that the money laundering is very thorough. I'll give you a starting point, if you like -
https://libertyonenews.com/soros-dark-money-tracked-revealed-huge-defund-the-police-scheme/ [libertyonenews.com]
https://nypost.com/2021/12/16/how-george-soros-funded-progressive-das-behind-us-crime-surge/ [nypost.com]
https://en-volve.com/2021/12/10/george-soros-caught-funneling-millions-to-abolish-police-movement/ [en-volve.com]
https://www.worldtribune.com/list-of-shame-here-are-the-republicans-who-took-soros-funding/ [worldtribune.com]
https://thenewamerican.com/george-soros-buying-judges-now/ [thenewamerican.com]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 19 2022, @04:48PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 19 2022, @05:54PM (1 child)
I gave you a starting point. You go down the rabbit hole, or you stand there wondering what's down there besides rabbits.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 19 2022, @06:42PM
and immediately walks that back
Which turns out to be
So he's lobbying indirectly for merit selection, not buying judges. And well, that's a legal activity I approve of. That completely deflates the story. At this point, there's no hole left much less a bunch of rabbits or other things hiding down that hole.
I see more of that in your other links too some which accuse him of buying elections for DAs. Well, if he can do that, then wouldn't that show a huge flaw in the whole idea of electing DAs? Something that can't be patched merely by passing laws? We get babble like:
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:46PM (2 children)
That...that last sentence of yours. Holy shit. You said something that MAKES ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND MORAL SENSE.
Are you feeling okay? Are you the real Hallow?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 25 2022, @01:39AM (1 child)
Khallow leaves no facts off the table in an argument. Well, not unless his opposition bring them, then it's obvious garbage.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 31 2022, @04:22AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:34PM
Don't they? [newspunch.com] Interesting that the army is now offering up to $50k enlistment incentives. [army.mil] Unsubstantiated estimates had Hunter Biden receiving $50k a month from Burisma. [checkyourfact.com] Ukrainian oligarchs already paid him, he's their man!
So let's send Hunter Biden to the front line, meth pipe in one hand and paintbrush in the other, butt naked except for his neck scarf and aviators. Alexander Soros and his Antifa goons can go too, they'd love to fight alongside the neo-nazis Soros Sr. also funded. [strategic-culture.org] General Mark Milley can command:- Russian forces will be easily defeated by lectures on "white rage".
What's his ethnicity got to do with it? As my last link explained, Soros is heavily implicated in the Ukrainian political situation.
"If we're going to be pulled into a conflict, let's deal with those who caused it!"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:37AM (5 children)
Well, don't stop with Soros. I nominate the remaining Koch, Bloomberg, and Murdoch. We might want to do a second sweep to get their heirs as well. You're right to put Soros up front and center, but don't leave the job less than half finished! If we accidentally got the Sacklers, no one would cry for them.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:57AM (2 children)
Runaway recommends more killing. How much blood will satisfy him?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:21AM (1 child)
How much blood do you have?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @05:40PM
Not only have Republicans become a death cult now they're vampires in need of blood? Puts a whole new twist on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter :^)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @05:42PM (1 child)
Know what would help reugn in these naughty billionaires?
Tax the rich!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @11:16PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_d9s2pqrk [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 21 2022, @02:31AM
Was always the key to winning Risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game) [wikipedia.org]